Arnold Palmer Invitational-Fantasy Golf Picks for the PGA Tour
In this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, Tiger will again be lurking and his past success on this course means you can’t afford not to have Tiger Woods on your roster. Find the rest of my picks below. Mandatory Credit: Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports
The PGA Tour stays in Florida for one more week after an intriguing and exciting Tampa Bay Championship last week left Kevin Streelman with his first PGA Tour win. This week the players move from Copperhead to Bay Hill where Arnold Palmer again hosts the Tour’s Orlando event.
Last week in our FantasyCPR group, Eagle’s Nest got his third win of the season to stay on top by putting up 146 points behind Sergio Garcia, Jim Furyk, and Luke Donald finishing in the top ten. I had all three of those players but by shuffling my lineup to get to them finished with 138 which was enough to stay in fifth in our 19-entry league. Scoring was down overall last week since most of the bigger names finished off the leaderboard and not many people tagged Streelman as the eventual champ. Hopefully this week we can get some more points.
Here’s who I’m stocking my roster with this week:
Mar 27, 2011; Orlando, FL, USA; Tiger Woods smiles on the practice range during the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club
A-List
Tiger Woods: Even with only 10 Tiger starts, this is an opportunity no fantasy golf player can pass up. He’s dominated on multiple courses, but at Bay Hill Woods has won an astonishing seven times. He also won his last time out at the WGC-Cadillac before taking a week off. Tiger’s a solid pick in any format as he chases his eighth win on this course.
Bubba Waston: Watson continually is around the leaderboard and his length plays well at Bay Hill. He finished t4 last year and t18 two weeks ago at the Blue Monster. If you go with Tiger, you’re really just making this second pick of someone you think will be around the top three to try to pick up double bonuses.
B-List
Justin Rose: Rose is as steady as they come with top-25’s in 12 in a row. He finished t3 two year’s ago at the Palmer and last year tied for 15th. His experience on this course and his ability to stick the ball in close to the pin even on difficult greens should serve him well as he attacks Bay Hill.
Sep 23, 2012; Atlanta, GA, USA; Jim Furyk (USA) tees of on the 2nd hole during the final round of the TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Liles-USA TODAY Sports
Jim Furyk: So far this season, Furyk has been steady making the cut in all four stroke-play events he’s participated in and getting his best finish of the year last week in Tampa where he finished t7. He seemed just a putt or two away from making a major charge on the leaderboard last week, so hopefully he can put it together this week at Bay Hill where he’s been in the top 11 the last three years.
Cameron Tringale: Tringale is a bit of a flier since he missed the cut last year in his first appearance at Bay Hill (very common for first-timers). He is notoriously streaky and appears to be heating up finishing solo third last week at Copperhead. Before that finish he missed the cut at the Honda but had a pair of top 25’s before that. Tringale is a bit of a risk, but I feel I have three safe options and could catch a flier if Tringale can harness some of the form that helped him shoot 66 on Sunday.
Hunter Mahan: Mahan has six straight top-25 finishes, but hasn’t been great recently on this track. I’ll start with him on my bench to preserve the start if possible, but if his putter’s on he could easily challenge Tiger.
C-List
March 07, 2013; Miami, FL, USA; Ian Poulter eyes a birdie putt at the WGC Cadillac Championship at Trump Doral Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Brad Barr-USA TODAY Sports
Lee Westwood: There’s lots of C-List golfers in this week’s event but few inspire much confidence. I’m sure Westwood will be a popular option, but I think he’s a solid one. He’s played the event 10 times in the past and has only one missed cut, but he hasn’t played in the last four years and the course has changed considerably since then. Still, his solid overall play makes him a worthy play any week he tees it up and he does have six career top-25’s in this event.
Ian Poulter: There’s some intriguing rookies on the board, but rookies typically don’t fare well at Bay Hill. Instead, I’ll keep my C-list all British and add Ian Poulter. Poulter finished third last year behind Woods and Graeme McDowell. The finished t12 two years ago and is coming off a relatively successful start to the season. He faded badly in the final round with a 75 in his most recent tournament at the WGC-Cadillac, but was playing well before that. Poulter should be able put up another strong showing this week in Orlando.