The Fantasy Insider: THE PLAYERS
 
May. 8, 2007
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By Brett Avery
The Fantasy Insider
PGATOUR.COM Contributor

Financially speaking, this should be the easiest week of the season to select a Salary Cap Cup team. Except at the top of the scale, the talent comes relatively cheap this week.

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Ken Duke has collected over $1 milllion in earnings over the last month.

Everyone who is anyone is checking out the new digs in the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse for THE PLAYERS Championship. That means the No. 50 player in the world, a distinction held this week by Paul Goydos, goes for $163,500. That's rock-bottom compared to some weeks, where the No. 50 player costs more than $250,000.

Heck, one of TFI's favorite selections at the moment is only $75,750: Ken Duke crashed the top 100 by zooming to 96th after yet another strong showing last week.

The salaries are so good, it makes TFI want to submit 15 rosters. He'll gladly pay you next Tuesday for another million dollars in salary today.

And yet here he is shortly after 4 a.m. Tuesday, bleary-eyed at the desk even before the birds begin chirping, having punted on the Monday night research session because of an acidic feeling in his stomach.

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Statistically speaking, this is the toughest week of the season to select a Salary Cap Cup team. Right from the top of the scale the talent runs thick.

But there are plenty of other factors that make THE PLAYERS the fantasy year's most difficult week. And that's what set TFI's tummy grumbling. There will be loads of familiar sights this week that are actually ... not familiar enough.

  • New body below the course's skin, thanks to extensive drainage work. No matter how precisely the contours are mimicked by the construction crews, in spots it's bound to seem awkwardly different. And nothing tricks the minds of these guys like "different."

  • Playing surface of Bermuda instead of the former rye overseed and new turf on the greens. The rough alone should drive the players batty.

  • Seven weeks later on the calendar, meaning higher air temperatures favoring players who prefer shirtsleeves instead of sweaters. And no one's prepping for The Masters, either.

    • So the formula is: low salaries for quality players + deja voodoo in the atmosphere = throw a dart at the entry list.

    Not really. TFI's going back to the basics this week: hot players in recent weeks and depth of talent over the long run.

    The first few years at Sawgrass, when everyone was trying to learn their way around the place, brought out quality winners: Jerry Pate, Hal Sutton, Fred Couples. The tournament has landed only one first-time winner on the PGA TOUR in Craig Perks (2002).

    It should be the same this year as the new place turns 25.

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

  • Tiger Woods. Last week's Wachovia Championship victory makes him a potentially crummy pick because of his record on back-to-back victories in the first six months of the season. He constantly wins consecutive events late in the year, but the last time he did it before mid-May was 2003 (WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship and Bay Hill Invitational). The time before that was 2001 (Bay Hill, PLAYERS, Masters). If any of the one-time PLAYERS champs is destined to win a second it's this guy, even if he's tied for 22nd and 53rd his last two starts at Sawgrass.

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    Fred Funk gets in some chipping practice during Monday's practice round at TPC Sawgrass. (WireImage)

  • Ken Duke. TFI put him in the second slot last week yet had to bestow his weekly "sleeper" selection on No. 3 pick Lucas Glover (118 FedEx Cup points, tied 34th). Is TFI miffed Duke tied for seventh and picked up 779 points? Absolutely not: Duke wasn't eligible thanks to a Zurich Classic of New Orleans runner-up placing (sleepers cannot have a top five in their last five starts). Even with the tough crowd and course TFI thinks the guy has a good chance at coming close to his fifth straight top-10 finish.

  • Fred Funk. He's on the cusp of becoming too comfortable on the shorter, more forgiving Champions Tour layouts but probably has one more remaining pop on the big stage. His last five starts, since the Mayakoba Golf Classic victory in Mexico, are erratic: two WDs, two missed cuts and a tie for 21st at the Verizon Heritage. But his last two Champions starts are sevenths and the 2005 PLAYERS winner hasn't been outside the top 16 at Sawgrass since 2003.

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

  • David Toms. While the majority of players have given up accuracy off the tee for distance in recent years, this guy's gone in the opposite direction. Four years ago he ranked 72nd in driving distance (288.8 yards) and 125th in fairways (64.22 percent). This season he's 150th in distance (275.9) and 24th in accuracy (67.13 percent). Should make a world of difference, right? Then why has he gone from 12th in scoring average to 23rd? This isn't his favorite place, what with missing the cut three of the last four years. Don't expect him to go deep this week, either.

    • Rotisserie results for Expert League at Wachovia Championship: 52.5 points (third). First in scrambling, tied first in fairways, second in FedEx Cup points, third in putting and stroke average. Overall: 63.0 points (first by 7.5 points over Mike Vitti of pgatour.com). See, that's what gets TFI nervous: Big lead with four months left in the season and too late to scrape up enough cash to sign Roger Clemens to come in during crucial situations. Good thing then that he has Steve Stricker and Ken Duke each pulling a ton of weight.

    Rotisserie lineup for Expert League at THE PLAYERS Championship: Paul Casey (not eligible for FedExCup points), Ken Duke, Padraig Harrington, Steve Stricker. In field but not in lineup: K.J. Choi, Tim Clark, Shigeki Maruyama, Geoff Ogilvy, Ryan Palmer, David Toms, Bubba Watson. Not in field: Anders Hansen.

    Match-play results for Public League 3359 at Wachovia Championship: TFI 11.5, Massachusetts Eagles 6.5. Overall: 10-5-1 (first in West Division by two games). Closer margin than it appears to gain victory with playoff implications (already!) over the East Division's No. 2 team (10-5-1 and leader in points by eight). That's 3-2-1 in the last seven weeks in the struggle for stability.

    Match-play lineup for Public League 3359 at THE PLAYERS Championship: TFI vs. koach (5-9-2). Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Davis Love III, Zach Johnson. Reserves: Troy Matteson, Jonathan Byrd, Frank Lickliter III, Mark Calcavecchia, Nick O'Hern, Daniel Chopra, Jose Coceres. Not in field: Anders Hansen.

    Salary Cap Cup results for Wachovia Championship: The main lineup of Phil Mickelson (1,450 FedExCup points, tied third), Luke Donald (0 points, missed cut), Vaughn Taylor (0 points, missed cut), Sean O'Hair (0 points, withdrew) and Shigeki Maruyama (44 points, tied 82nd) earned 1,494 points and placed 22,820th. Through Week 17 it totaled 10,284 points and ranked 16,817th. For the overall season it totaled 52,193 points and ranked 1,708th

    The "Hey, buddy" backup lineup of Tiger Woods (4,500 FedEx Cup points, won!), Adam Scott (185 points, tied 24th), Lucas Glover (118 points, tied 34th), J.J. Henry (363 points, tied 16th) and D.J. Trahan (0 points, missed cut) earned 5,416 points and placed 9,388th. Through Week 17 it totaled 17,707 points and ranked 3,362nd. For the overall season it totaled 35,411 and ranked 11,635th

    Week 17 winner: 9-under 10,906 points.

    Segment 2 leader: Flyboys 32,535 points.

    Overall: Outlaws 78,935 points.

    Salary Cap Cup lineup for THE PLAYERS Championship: Main lineup, Tiger Woods $300,000, Retief Goosen $274,000, Stephen Ames $209,000, Fred Funk $98,500, Ken Duke $75,750. Total: $957,250. "Hey, buddy" backup lineup, Phil Mickelson $293,500, Vijay Singh $280,500, Vaughn Taylor $189,500, Tom Lehman $111,500, Anthony Kim $105,000. Total: $980,000. Tiebreakers: 282, 2.

    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.