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By Brett Avery
The Fantasy Insider
PGATOUR.COM Contributor

The Fantasy Insider's loss is your loss, too.

You're a little surprised to read that one, huh?

His loss came earlier this year during the annual research trip to the United Kingdom. It wasn't simply one loss but a string of disappointments over eight days in which the power of the expense report failed to overcome the weakness of the United States dollar.

Inside the numbers

Tiger Woods at the Open Championship

Year Finish 2006 1 2005 1 2004 T9 2003 T4 2002 T28 2001 T25 2000 1 1999 T7 1998 3 1997 T24 1996 T22 1995 T66 Average 15.9

TFI's visit to Carnoustie, this week's host of the British Open Championship, and 2008 site Royal Birkdale occurred in that springtime window when the exchange rate finally meant one U.K. pound sterling equaled more than two U.S. dollars.

That's terrific if you're enjoying one of those British bank holiday weekends by hopping a cheap-as-dirt flight to America and shopping until your eyes bulge out of your head.

Unfortunately for TFI, the exchange was the other way. So it was kind of like the chances the Washington Generals had once upon a time against the Harlem Globetrotters.

Dismal.

There is psychic pain. There is physical pain. There are the pains of loss and despondency and loneliness.

And then there is the pain of standing at the counter of a newsagent's store at 4 p.m., stomach rumbling and the confectionary aroma swirling about, wrestling with how the heck to camouflage in the expense account the $6 it costs for a Mint Aero, a Kit Kat and a Cadbury Dairy Milk with caramel.

If you haven't tasted U.K. chocolate, you can't appreciate that pain. Trust TFI when he touts the advantages of European sweets.

Three months later, when TFI sat down this week for his Monday night research and selection session, the exchange rate was still going strong at £2.0365=$1.

If that rate holds up for another seven days -- and it's not likely to drop much in that time -- the £4.2 million Open purse will top out at $8,553,330.

The winner will pocket£750,000, or $1,527,375.

The guy placing 70th will take home $19,346.75.

When you sit down this week to determine your Salary Cap Cup teams, you will have nearly 300 players available: everyone at Carnoustie and everyone in the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee.

The purse at Milwaukee is $4,000,000.

The winner will pocket $720,000.

The guy placing 70th will take home about $7,500.

In any other year of Salary Cap Cup, girls and boys, TFI would have told you to load up on players from the Open to take advantage of the much larger purse and throw in a fifth guy from stateside in a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey attempt at doubling up with winners.

The beauty of the FedExCup playoffs -- it flattens tournaments to the same yardstick, thereby making a victory a victory -- works against us with the second and last double week of the season.

The field at Carnoustie is wrestling over 27,500 points while the guys in Milwaukee are tussling for 12,500.

In other words, the exchange rate isn't the only thing doing damage to people who stayed in the States this week.

So TFI is going to rescind his previous suggestions to take four players from the Open and one from Milwaukee. Take all five from Carnoustie and load up on the FedExCup bonus.

But rotisserie team owners in League Championship, listen up: Think long and hard about those Milwaukee guys this week. You also have the pick of both fields and it's fairly obvious that while the bonus-point advantage goes to Carnoustie, the other nine stats favor guys in Milwaukee.

Where the winning score the last two years was 260. And even the guys who tied for 69th were under par for the week.

That'll hardly be the case at Carnoustie, even in the calmest of conditions. (Fat chance of that.)

Match-play format competitors in League Championship are limited to the Open field. Still, you probably can find a few worthy guys in your roster this week. If nothing else, you can approximate a sugar fix with the oodles of television coverage from both sites.

Now, if you'll excuse him TFI needs to make a run to the corner store before it shuts for the night. The chocolate's not nearly as good at what's offered by British newsagents, but at least it fits into this week's budget -- and it's the same size as an overseas bar, too.

Three players TFI might pick up/trade for to get onto his roster this week:

Tiger Woods. What, there's another guy who has a shot at dominating this field?

Angel Cabrera. He took his lumps in the Open's third round in 1999, during its last visit to Carnoustie, with a 77 that tarnished his Friday 69. But he came back with a 70 and tied for fourth at 291, a shot out of the three-way playoff won by Paul Lawrie. He has the power to excel over a 7,421-yard course and the confidence now that his major-championship dreams paid off at the U.S. Open.

Ian Poulter. Would've considered him penny candy a month ago during his nasty MC-DQ-T36-MC stretch across five weeks, from the BMW PGA Championship through the BMW International Open on the PGA European Tour (it swallowed up the Memorial and U.S. Open, too). But he's much crisper with solo ninth in the Open de France and tie for eighth in last Barclays Scottish Open. He'll draw plenty of British support, especially by living up to his European numbers for fairways hit (70.1 percent, ranked 14th) and greens in regulation (72.6 percent, 19th). Plus he'd fit into a Zach Johnson-Angel Cabrera run of major winners outside the World Ranking top 30 (he's 31st).

One player TFI might waive/drop/trade away to get off his roster this week:

Colin Montgomerie. What, there's another guy who has a bigger bull's eye on his back thanks to the British press? Sure, he won the Smurfit Kappa European Open a few weeks back at The K Club but that's not nearly the test offered by Carnoustie (not to mention the ghosts of major championships past).

Rotisserie results for Expert League at John Deere Classic: 46.5 points (fourth, 23 points behind Christian Peterson of fanball.com). First in fairways, tied first in sand saves, third in FedExCup points. Overall: 62.0 points (first by two over Peterson). Splendid job by the crew this week: One WD, one DQ, a tie for 67th and a tie for sixth from Heath Slocum. Stellar!

Rotisserie lineup for Expert League at the Open Championship and U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee: Paul Casey, Mathew Goggin, Geoff Ogilvy, Heath Slocum. Active but not in lineup: Mark Calcavecchia, K.J. Choi, Padraig Harrington, Steve Stricker, David Toms. Not in field: Ken Duke, Bubba Watson.

Match-play results for Public League 3359 at John Deere Classic: St. Pete Crumbsnatchers 13, TFI 5. Overall: 14-9-2 (first in West Division, three games ahead of St. Pete Crumbsnatchers). Oh, and TFI hasn't heard a peep from St. Pete about the trade offer made in last week's column. At least he got a column out of it!

Match-play lineup for Public League 3359 at the Open Championship: Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Nick O'Hern, Jesper Parnevik. Reserves: Zach Johnson, Bernhard Langer, Nick Watney, Joe Ogilvie, Pat Perez, Mark Calcavecchia. Not in lineup: Jose Coceres, Stephen Marino.

Salary Cap Cup results for John Deere Classic: The main lineup of Lucas Glover (550 FedExCup points, tied 11th), Bernhard Langer (130 points, tied 32nd), Craig Kanada (0 points, missed cut), Kevin Stadler (0 points, missed cut), Marco Dawson (338 points, tied 18th) earned 1,018 points and placed 7,599th. Through Week 28 it totaled 8,418 points and ranked 10,825th. For the season it totaled 66,323 points and ranked 4,176th overall. Hey, nice job by the team as a whole. Next time, guys, you're going to find it difficult to make the lineup.

The "Hey, buddy" backup lineup of Pat Perez (0 points, missed cut), Brandt Snedeker (130 points, tied 32nd), Stephen Leaney (425 points, tied 15th), Jesper Parnevik (209 points, tied 22nd) and Chris Riley (58 points, tied 54th) earned 822 points and placed 9,391st. Through Week 28 it totaled 9,071 points and ranked 8,915th. For the season it totaled 61,419 points and ranked 6,202 overall. Hey, at least four guys on this lineup figured out a way to make the cut.

Week 28 winner: CUTigers3 8,409 points.

Segment 3 leader: Olivia Wildcats 25,284 points.

Overall: Idol 63 107,937 points.

Salary Cap Cup lineup for Open Championship and U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee: Main lineup, Tiger Woods $300,000, Luke Donald $274,000, Ian Poulter $212,250, Hunter Mahan $121,250, Justin Leonard $92,000. Total: $999,500. "Hey, buddy" backup lineup, Phil Mickelson $296,750, Geoff Ogilvy $277,250, Carl Pettersson $183,000, Sean O'Hair $127,750, Darren Clarke $105,000. Total: $989,750. Tiebreakers: 278, 1.

Have a question or comment for TFI? Send it to him at brettavery@aol.com. Please be sure to include your name, where you're from, the name of your team and, if it relates to League Championship, the name of your league and whether you're competing in the rotisserie or match-play format.