The Gophers Seizes the Day at The Farmers

As the exciting West Coast swing continues, the Tour put on quite the show at The Farmers Insurance Open. Whether scripted or not, the Tiger didn't disappoint the tabloids by first embarrassing himself during his warm up at the range on Thurs(Golf Channel showed a short clip of him chunking, blading, sculling, and shanking short wedge shots with his team of swing consultants hovering around). Lets just hope that he, as well as Geeteeo, can find their magic release point before its to late. Once the actual tournament started, Tiger couldn't get his glutes to release and only made it 11 holes before heading in for a late lunch. The rest of field gutted it out and provided an exciting tournament all the way to the end. As the tournament headed down the back nine on Sunday, it seemed as if half the field had a shot at winning. In the end, it took a 4 man playoff before Jason Day emerged victorious on the 2nd playoff hole.
In the fantasy world, it was The Gophers who used a strategic lineup on the North course both Thurs. and Friday to build an uncatchable lead. Highlighted by a second rd. score of 76 points(the highest one day total excluding bonus points in league history...congrats), the Gophers strolled to his first victory of the young season with an impressive total score of 230 pts. The Gophers has now emerged as the clear front runner for the winter segment with 5 consecutive top 10 finishes. Congratulations to The Gophers.

Strangers finally got in the act with a solid 2nd place finish at Torrey Pines. The current holder of the Jackson Cup made a great comeback over the weekend to secure his first top 3 of the season. His picks of English and Day garnered him 30 bonus points and proved the difference maker on Sunday. At first, the leagues' top executives were becoming worried that last years champion had developed a case of the fantasy yipps. At last though, he stepped up to tee and ripped it down the middle and now is comfortably inside the top 15 overall.

Rounding out the top 3 was Freeside Links. A seasoned veteran, Freeside has proven time and again to never count him out under pressure. He two was able to accumulate 30 bonus pts. on Sunday from English and Day, but it was his pick of Laird who got this whylly fantasy veteran over the hump and into his first top 3 of season. Although Freeside is known for his fast starts on the course, lately his over exaggerated pause at the top has given many of his critics a major pause for concern.

Nototables:

Kikakee Tees narrowly missed his first top 3, but continues to knock at the locker room door week in and week out. Lets just hope he is able to secure enough points before the summer segment when Ernest will head off to camp.

The sweet swinging Big Easy secured his 3rd top ten of the season despite having 3 MC and 1 NE(Several players got screwed when Graham Delaet pulled out of the tourney last minute due to a long Wednesday night of rebel rousing with Tiger).

Both of ladies in the league(Tomte and Show and Dough) finished with their 2nd top ten of season respectively. Both have committed to slowing the swing down and playing the sensible choices on their roster so far this year.

At long last, Better Than Most decided to completely change his swing mid-segment which resulted in his 1st top ten of the season. Rumor has it, a swing app on his phone was the difference maker that might have turned his lackluster season around. Of course, there have been several whispers around the league that the commissioner had lost his ability to commission. Leading up to his long anticipated 1st top ten, a fantasy coup had been forming within the shadowy underworld of the league. Thank goodness we can put that potentially dangerous situation on the back burner for now.

Not So Notables:

Almost half way through the winter segment and several fantasy tour players have yet to record a top ten. Time to hit the range and snap out of it. Remember, one must record a top ten finish at some point in the season in order to have exempt status on the fantasy tour next year.
Time to step up the game folks!!

This week were off to the legendary pebble beach golf links at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Course strategy will again come in to play as this tournament marks the last of the multiple course tourneys on the Tour schedule. Remember that every player on your roster has a total of 10 starts for the year and that's it. Good Luck!!

(This recap brought to you by Papa Pilgrim)