Following points adjustment Kings Deer wins record 3rd in a row while capturing Spring Segment title

The 3M presented some unique challenges to the field last week and no one saw the bloodbath coming after Friday's cut. Teams were laid waste and strewn across the greens as squads limped home and malnourished regiments went back out on the weekend to fight a losing battle. There were fortunate survivors however and the battle raged on for them throughout Saturday and Sunday. And in the end a recognizable figure stood at the head of the battlefield. After a very unorthodox point adjustment very late in the process it was none other than Kings Deer who captured a record setting 3 wins in a row. 

It's unclear what adjustment was made but as of Monday Nick Hoffman had the lead over Kings by no more than 2 or 3 points. But as of Wednesday night the leaderboard layout shifted and Kings took the top spot by a single point over Hoffman. It's likely that one of his golfer's scores was incorrectly recorded in the PGA Tour fantasy page and the adjustment was only caught much later. So it goes. Kings Deer sneaks out an impressive 3rd victory in a row (a league first) and wins both the Spring Segment and the final event of the segment. Congrats Kings Deer! In a 3 week stretch he's gone from zero to $155 hero. 

Top 3 Finish

A heart breaker of a finish for Nick Hoffman after he'd all but secured the first win of his young career. He's surely put in the work as he's accumulated 10 Top 10s over 17 weeks to go along with 2 Top 3s. He'll have to go back to the tape to see where the adjustment was made but there's no arguing with blind trust in a website's ability to be managed fairly. He'll take his second paycheck of the season though and enter the final segment with a full head of steam and a chip on his shoulder. 

Halve Ouimet snagged only his second Top 3 of the season and is having a standard year with mediocre stats and standings position. He's accumulated 6 Top 10s to fall right in the middle of the pack and holds down a middle position in the overall standings as well. With a short Summer Segment maybe he's got the strategy to win a sprint vs a marathon though as his pace hasn't been fast enough thus far. 

Race for the Spring Segment

The race for the spring title was shaping up to be a real barn burner through 27 holes as DontHasseltheHoff and Kings Deer were going toe-to-toe and blow-for-blow, trading jabs as they jockeyed for the lead. The lead changed hands a couple times and ended after the first day in a tie. Kings battled back but TheHoff kept pace. However after Friday's round it was clear that the fight would quickly become a KO as TheHoff lost four good men to the cut and could only field a roster of 2 to finish the event. Kings would very nearly walk across the finish line as he had a full squad and not only was on target to capture the segment championship but the final tournament as well. 

It was a big spring for the wily vet and he captures his second career Segment Championship taking home a $50 paycheck to pad his season earnings and squarely put him in the top spot for both earnings and overall standings. 

Stats and Trends

After two segments worth of epic showdowns and knock down drag out fantasy brawls we're able to see some trends coming from the stats as teams vie for position and Top 10s each week. It's no surprise to see some names near the top of several stat categories but it's certainly surprising to see a few names gracing the top spots as well. 

GreenJacket leads the league in both Top 10s and Top 3s but very recently lost his overall lead and earnings lead. In a recent interview GreenJacket indicated that while there wasn't much he could do to stop Kings on such a hot streak he's keeping with his strategy and plans to retake the lead in the coming weeks. 

Nick Hoffman was sneaky good over the past two segments and clocked in at 10 Top 10s and 3 Top 3s. He's clawed his way back into the action after a performance that was 26% better in the spring than that of the winter. He's in 3rd overall and just a few hundred points behind the leader. 

After his recent performance it's no surprise that Kings Deer leads the league in both wins and earnings as he collected a cool $155 in just 3 weeks. It'll be interesting to see if he can keep this pace up as we enter the home stretch and a gauntlet of high paying events. He leads the league points accrued from driving with 904 coming from drives over 300 in the fairway. 

A surprising name on the Top 3 leaderboard is Papa Pilgrim who's had a very up and down type season - and not in a good way. He started the year out hot and collected 3 Top 3s by the end of the spring segment but he's missed a couple weeks worth of rosters which changes his strategy to more of a guerilla warfare type approach - quick onslaughts before receding into the jungle. 

4th place team Kikakee Tees is having a down year by his own standards as he collected a decent amount of Top 10s with 8 but is severely lagging behind in the categories that count. He's only collected 2 Top 3s in 17 weeks and has no wins or earnings to his name so far in 2020. The next 6 weeks will offer Kikakee a chance to completely turn that narrative around. 

Rookie ByeBye Birdie is holding strong in 5th place after stumbling a bit with missed cuts and falling back from the overall lead. She's certainly giving the veterans a run for their money and has aims to at the very least finish in the money and maybe even make an all out charge for the lead which is 400 points away. She's also the only other team besides Kings who has multiple wins and that ain't bad.

 

2020 Top 10s & Top 3s

Vegas Vito is looking to overcome hist fantasy demons from years past as he looks to chase down a finishing position in the money for the first time since 2014 - his Jackson Cup year. He came close in 2019 with a 5th place finish but sadly theere were only payouts to 3 positions last year. He's in 6th now and has a legit shot to break the curse. 

An impressive rise up the leaderboard was the big news for DontHasseltheHoff as he went from finishing the winter in 18th place to finishing the spring in 4th place - a robust 45% increase segment over segment. He's captured 8 Top 10s but hasn't been able to translate any of them into a payday or even a Top 3. He's got 6 weeks to change that story or there'll be plenty to hassle him over. 

The freshman class of 2020 has put up decent numbers so far and of the 14 rookies they have a collective 6 wins, 21 Top 3s and 79 Top 10s. If you compare that to the 17 veterans with 12 wins, 30 Top 3s and 89 Top 10s it's not quite keeping-pace storyline but it's certainly nothing to sneer at. Of the teams inside the Top 10 overall 5 of them are rookies and they have more Top 10s (38) than the veterans (36) and more Top 3s (12 vs 11). The veterans however are the majority winners as they've taken down 12 events over 6 for the freshman class. 

A big mover up the leaderboard from the winter to spring was the first year Roll Up who very nearly took down the Spring Segment Championship. He came within a stones throw of capturing a huge milestone in his first year on fantasy tour and showed a rise up the leaderboard of 48% over the winter, going from 20th to 5th. Just goes to show that it's anybody's title to win in any given week or segment. 

DaHoffa is looking to break his 8th place finish streak which is currently at 2 years running as he currently sits in 7th - too close for comfort. He hasn't finished in the money since 2017 which was his highest career finish at 4th place. He's T5 for Top 10s, T18 for Top 3s and is still looking for his first win and payday. He's never been blanked in the earnings category a single year throughout his career on fantasy tour. He's got 6 weeks to make sure that streak doesn't come to an end. 

Reed's Rule Book has learned from his winter mistakes and made some good strides in the right direction. He turned his 13th place winter finish into a 6th place spring finish and marched up the overall leaderboard into 8th. He's not far from the money spots inside the Top 5 at less than 100 points off the pace. Reed's will need to test his nerve though over the next 6 weeks to see if he can close that gap without the luxury of a patient strategy. 

The perennial favorite and reigning Jackson Cup Champion Gophers finds himself in an unusual position. By most standards he's having a decent year, pulling in a handful of Top 10s and a win over 17 weeks. However for the typical money leader it's not a position he's comfortable being in. He's most likely reconciled by now that his coveted cup won't be gracing any position of honor in his abode follwoing the season. But as he finds himself in 9th overall he's certainly in a position to make up ground and snag a few bucks along the way. 

Summer Segment 

The final segment in a very strange season is now upon us. It's the shortest segment the First Timers League has ever seen and consists of 6 very high paying tournaments in a dead sprint to the finish. Kings and GreenJacket will be dueling every week and with any luck it might just come down to the back nine on a course just outside of Atlanta on a Sunday just 6 weeks away. Maybe it won't be just the two of them wrangling for the Cup. Six weeks to go - time to drop it into high gear.