The 2018 First Timers League fantasy golf season is now in the books and what a season it was. From January to September - 8 1/2 long months - the veterans of the game duelled it out on sun soaked landscapes of lush chemically treated Bermuda. No one left anything in the tank as the final week came around - except maybe the ones who stopped fielding rosters - but there can only be one Jackson Cup Champion crowned. And despite valiant efforts by many worthy contenders one man would pull away and lay his hands on the Jackson Cup once again. 2018 saw a host of near unbelievable feats that stunned the fantasy golf world. From first time major winners to streaks so long they rivalled the earth's rotation of the sun. The action was always on full display and with the closure of the 5th season we look back on the epic story lines that will define fantasy golf for generations to come.
RACE TO THE JACKSON CUP
In perhaps one of the most back and forth races we've seen to date there were 8 different leaders over the course of the season and 13 lead changes. No lead was ever safe with this motley crew giving chase. There were many stumbling blocks along the way though as leader after leader fell victim to the typical pitfalls that are hard to avoid in such a long fantasy golf season. From missed rosters to tournament favorites missing the cut the downfall was never an easy thing to watch.
Enter Gophers.
With the experience of taking down the Jackson Cup in 2015 he was well acquainted with what it took to go the distance. In his pursuit for fantasy greatness he put in place a strategy that would keep him inside the Top 10 all season long. Taking over first place in week 18 he would immediately lose it the next week to Whiny Little Pitch but then bided his time until the opportunity was once again right. It would be 14 long weeks before that opportunity came again as he watched the likes of Driving Miss Daisy, Halve Ouimet, That's Wet and Whiny all take their turn as king or queen of the hill. But in week 33, nearing the end of the season, his time had come and Gophers jumped back into the lead.
Once he took back the lead he never looked back. Aided by what is perhaps the greatest Top 10 streak in First Timers League history Gophers went 13 strait weeks with a Top 10. The streak only coming to an end because there was no more golf to play. Starting in week 23 Gophers went on the tear of a lifetime, going 5th to 1st in 10 weeks and hanging on to it for the final 3. During those final three weeks he faced 3 different challengers who just couldn't catch the streaking veteran.
In week 34 it was 2nd place Whiny who gave it a shot but her 15 place finish took her out. In week 35 it was 2nd place Driving Miss Daisy who put her hat in the ring but her 10th place finish pulled her back to 6th overall. And in the final week it was 2nd place Talkeetna98 who would give it a try but by then Gophers had already built up over a 100 point lead - all but solidifying his grasp on the Jackson Cup. And so week 36 started and ended with the surety of yet another repeat winner in the First Timers League. Gophers would end the season on the highest note he's ended on over the course of his career. He nailed down his 13th Top 10 in a row by finishing 6th at the TOUR Championship, captured his 2nd Segment Title by winning the Summer Segment and won his second Jackson Cup with a grand total of $210. A truly remarkable performance and certainly one for the record books. Congrats Gophers!
TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP
As if he'd been biding his time the whole season PapaLevs waited until the very last moment to leave his mark on the 2018 fantasy golf season. The wait paid off as his wisdom and foresight finally came to bear on the points total as he drafted the top 4 finishers to collect max bonus points - a feat that is extremely hard to do. PapLevs beat out Whiny Little Pitch by 23 points as she tried to surge up the leaderboard for final position. Papa would not be overtaken though as he knew in his gut that this was the right time to play the Tiger. And true to his big game form Tiger finally broke through to win his first tournament since 2013. And PapaLevs was there to capture all the reflected glory.
Levs finishes the season with a nice $40 paycheck for the TOUR Championship which significantly boosts his overall performance on the money list and stats sheet. With his 1 win he also carded 4 Top 3s and 9 Top 10s. Congrats PapaLevs.
Summer Segment Championship
In a league first, Gophers decided that one title was not enough and won both the Summer Segment and Jackson Cup in one fell swoop. The 2015 champ continues to dominate a league that is filled with perpetual contenders. Even despite the format change this year Gophers still thrived. The segment trophy is only the second segment title of his career, his first coming in the winter of 2015. Seems that's the magic number for him - a segment title for each Jackson Cup.
Gophers had to battle off some league heavyweights though as Talkeetna98 and Whiny Little Pitch were in hot pursuit down the stretch. Talkeetna98 would come up just 40 points short of the title in what was already a career year for the vet. By winning 4 tournaments he surpassed his previous season high of $55 by doubling it this year.
Season Story Lines & Stats
Four Win Club
Biggest Leaderboard Charge
Best Start, Worst Finish of 2018
Ode to Temporary 1st Place Teams
Over the course of the season there were 8 different leaders at various points and 7 of them did not win the Jackson Cup. This is in memoriam of their short lived reign.
Kikakee Tees (1 week)
Eat My Grind (1 week)
Short Strokes (2 weeks)
Tourball (1 week)
Halve Ouimet (11 weeks)
Whiny Little Pitch (4 weeks)
Driving Miss Daisy (5 weeks)
That's Wet (5 weeks)
Career Firsts & Trends
Gophers continued his onslaught of Top 10s by stacking up 25 more this season to add to his already impressive collection. He's now got 80 Top 10s in 4 years on the job which is an impressive feat.
When finishing inside the Top 3 some teams are career closers while others are not. Among the top 10 most winningest teams 2 Footer has the best win percentage when finishing inside the Top 3 - 62%. On the flip side, two teams are tied for the worst win percentage in this category (Top 3 finish, 5 wins or more) as Whiny Little Pitch and Kikakee Tees are tied at 28% win rate for their career.
Follow the Money
Despite winning $0 in 2018 both Short Strokes, Jose Maria Oblazabong and Baby Draw are still in the top 5 money earners all time. Almost all of Short Strokes' winnings have come from Jackson Cup titles as he's only won 2 career wins. Baby Draw sat out he entire 2018 season and still managed to remain among the top money earners from his work in 2016 where he 3 times (twice in the FedexCup Playoffs) 1 segment and came in 2nd overall. Oblazabong's heyday came back in 2015 when he won $170 and then again in 2017 when he took home $93. His career has taken an "every other" kind of approach so perhaps 2019 will be his year once again.
Breaking The $Hundo$ Mark
2018 Fantasy Rankings
In the chart below there are numbers. And these numbers represent you. Some numbers are good. Some numbers are bad. But what we see from the numbers is that the numbers don't always predict the outcome. It's like they say on so many sports talk shows - that's why they play the games.
All the tracked stats from this season have been added up and ranked 1-24 for each stat category. So while you might have ranked 4th in money earned you only ranked 17th in Bonus Points. These rankings are then averaged and compared to where you finished in the overall standings. The season rank is then subtracted from the statistical rank and you get a number from +5 to -9. If the number is higher than +2.5 that means you performed worse than statistically expected. If you get a number below -2.5 that means you performed better than expected. And if you get a number between -2.4 and +2.4 then you played true to your ability.
Perhaps luck had a factor. Maybe it was fate. But it seems some may have played to a higher calibre but did not get their full due while some got their due but maybe with a little help from the golf gods. You be the judge.
Thanks everyone for another great season and another record year in the books for the First Timers League. There are rumours that the Yahoo platform is back for 2019 which would mean substitutions are back! But that has yet to be determined as we'll see if it's still active come January.
Enjoy the off season and (if you won any) your winnings. Congrats on another fantasy golf season and see you in 2019!
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