The 2021 fantasy golf season kicked off last week with a bang in Maui and anyone who watched the coverage saw a pristine, sun soaked landscape that reminded us of vacations we used to take. A brief escape if only for as long as NBC allowed us. Perhaps not quite the escape Justin Thomas had hoped for after his
frustration from a missed par putt was caught on mic and went viral prompting him to fight battles both on-course and off-course over the weekend.
The First Timers showed up in full force to inaugurate the first tournament of 2021 and it was a packed field throughout the week. Early on it was the big name veterans giving chase to the new kid on the block as One-Iron made his fantasy debut in style by leading the event after round 2 and 3. It was not to be for the rookie though as Sunday always offers the steepest challenge for the 54 hole leader. Instead it was a savvy veteran who's not known for his early season punch. Indeed, Where Eagles Dare hadn't won an event since late summer of 2018 at the Wyndham Championship. In fact, he recently told Fantasy Golfer Magazine that his best days migh be behind him. But the golfing gods smiled down on Eagles on Sunday in Kapalua as he fought dog and devil over the back nine at the Plantation Course to win his right to be called a champion once again, capturing the Tournament of Champions by a mere 3 points. Eagles had tied for 3rd here just 2 years ago but more notably, he held off the ever-present 4-time league champ and brother Gophers (3rd place finish) to cap off a special win indeed. Congrats Where Eagles Dare!
Runner Up
The 7th year veteran Tourball staged a late day charge up the leaderboard on the back of Harris English's stellar play and nearly caugh Eagles in the final sprint. Despite a treasure trove of points from Thomas and English it was not to be for Tourball and he'll settle for an opening Top 3 finish.
Third
It should have been no surprise to see the heavy hitting Gophers near the top and vying for the win on Sunday. He nearly go there as well and had the lead up until the very last. His lineup of fellow heavy hitters - Rahmbo, Bryson, DJ and JT - assured him of a solid finish but no season opening victory. Gophers is looking to regain the Jackson Cup after losing it in 2020 for the first time since 2017.
Notables
Vegas Vito picked up right where he left off last year with a solid finish inside the Top 10 as he looks to vye for the Jackson Cup after winning it in the inaugural season way back in 2014. Vito had only accrued 2 other Top 10 finishes at the Tournament of Champions in his 7 prior years on fantasy tour so this is a welcome start for the 8th year veteran.
The duel between
Smooth Greens and
One-Iron was one that harkened back to a time in our nation's history when brother fought against brother for the freedom to play fantasy golf as one saw fit. The second year veteran
Smooth Greens caught his brother - first year
One-Iron - on the last day to finish in a tie for 5th after
One-
Iron fell off the pace. It's
Smooth Green's 2nd Top 10 here in as many years and it seems the battle for familial fantasy dominance is just warming up.
The fantasy media isn't sure what to make of
DontHasseltheHoff's 7th place finish as pundits righly point to his rookie trend of last year where it was all Top 10s and no wins. The
Hoff is eager to shut these naysayers up and will do so immediatley upon hoisting his first championship trophy. A Top 10 in the opening event is a good start. Sixth year veteran
Driving Mrs. Daisy came out swinging with the second best start to a season in her career. The 8th place finish on the island of Maui gives her Top 10 number 2 at this event.
Daisy has been known to play well in the Aloha State and is the 2019 champ at the upcoming Sony Open this week in Honolulu where she also had a runner-up finish in 2017. The 9th place finish for
Niblick18 last week means that he's started his season off in good form but interestingly enough it was a worse start than his open salvo last year.
Niblick finished runner-up at the TOC in 2020 and 5th place in 2018. He's had a respectful history in Maui but has no Top 10s to his name in Honlulu at this week's Sony Open so he'll be looking to buck that trend.
Roll Up is picking up right where he left off his rookie season when he was seemingly climbing the leaderboard each week in the second half of the year. He got inside the 2020 Top 10 overall after being as low as 20th to start the Spring Segment and it seemed like he'd figured it all out. He'll be looking to add to his lone win of last year before long.
Show me the money
The fantasy golf season is unique among fantasy sports in that its season is longer than most by far. And so in order to reward players who perform well within the season the majority of the money has been distributed within the individual tournaments instead segment championships. The bottom line is that no matter where you are in the standings throughout the season you'll have a shot every week to win som cash and, in tournaments like the Masters and US Open, win big.
Of course the overall league champ and successive top 5 season finishers will get their just reward as well with $200 going to the champ, $90 to 2nd, $45 to 3rd, $20 to 2nd and $10 to 5th. Each segment champion will take home $50 for their efforts and then within the final 3 tournaments of the year (FedExCup Playoffs) the payouts will increase each week with cash going to each Top 3 finisher. There are also three $50 paydays out there for the 2 WGCs (week 8 & 29) and the PLAYERS Championship (week 10).
So any given week could be your payday.
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