Fantasy Golf: Tiger Woods out of 2014 Arnold Palmer Invitational

Tiger’s quest to become the winningest golfer at a single even will have to wait until next year after back spasms forced him to withdraw from this week’s tournament at Bay Hill Club & Lodge.

Tiger Woods has won the event eight times in the past including a win last season, but won’t be able to give it a go this season.  As I wrote yesterday, Tiger was a risk to have on your fantasy golf team, but there are still some nice options with him out of the tournament. In the Yahoo! format we are using for our FanSided group (details to join here) Tiger was of course on the A-List, so here are three options from that list to consider in place of Woods this week:

Patrick Reed

Reed has been rolling right along and is my second selection this week to go with my original pick of Bubba Watson.  Reed didn’t tee it up last week after winning two weeks ago at the Blue Monster.  It was his second victory in his last six starts after claiming the Humana Challenge win earlier this season and he’s been around the leaderboard in almost every event this year with seven straight top 25’s in his seven events since January 1.  Reed is a very solid option going into the week if you need a replacement for Woods.

Adam Scott

It’s hard to go wrong with the Aussie who has been remarkably steady putting up top-25’s in his last nine tournaments worldwide.  Scott hasn’t been great in his visits to Bay Hill, but he knows how to win and is playing well enough to roster in any format regardless of his past history in this event.

Gary Woodland

Woodland has been one of the hottest golfers on tour this year without a win.  He has three top-ten finishes already this season and comes into Bay Hill off a nice t8 last week giving him three top-twenty finishes in his last four stroke play events.

Rickie Fowler

Fowler has been putting together some nice rounds since rediscovering his groove at the Match Play Championship where he finished third.  His last two tournaments he finished t24 and t44 which aren’t great results but do show improvement after three straight MC’s to before his Match Play run.  Fowler is a bit of a sleeper pick, so pair him with someone you have a lot of confidence in if you decide to take the risk.