Print this page  |  Close Window

By Brett Avery
The Fantasy Insider
PGATOUR.COM Contributor

If you've got a match-play format team in League Championship, here's a question to ponder: Which tournaments will be played against which opponents?

Or are there opponents against whom you'll likely need the entire range of your squad?

Here's a hint on the answer to that second question: How'd you do last week?

The Fantasy Insider's pleased with his squad's performance in the World Golf Championships-CA Championship, a landslide victory against koach's team. It's the same opponent TFI dispatched easily in Week 3 at the Buick Invitational.

The Fantasy Insider believes Padraig Harrington would be a great addition to your fantasy team. (Grayson/WireImage)

Inside The Numbers

Padraig Harrington in 2007

Tournament Score to Par Finish AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am -5 T30 Nissan Open -10 7th WGC - Accenture Match Play Championship -- T17 The Honda Classic E T-13 WGC - CA Championship -1 T-19

If you're like TFI you probably used a hodge-podge of players at the Buick Invitational -- he fielded Vijay Singh, Andrew Buckle, Anders Hansen and Troy Matteson.

This past week's lineup also had Singh in the leadoff spot for TFI but had a stronger trio backing him up: Ernie Els, Zach Johnson and Mark Calcavecchia.

TFI will see koach's squad three more times in the 31-week regular season: THE PLAYERS, the Buick Open and Barclays Classic.

How does he know that?

TFI got to thinking this past weekend, while stretched out on the sofa watching a few moments of the NCAA basketball tournament, that there must be a strength of schedule factor in the League Championship match-play format, too.

So he pulled out a pad and pen, fired up the laptop and pieced together which of the seven opponents he'll face for each of the 31 weeks of the regular season.

To figure out your tournament lineup, click on the Team button on your league's page and then click on the Schedule roster. Jot down the seven other teams in the league in the order they appear -- your opponent at the CA Championship goes in the Week 3 slot.

Week 1 opponent: Sony Open in Hawaii (week 1), PODS Championship (8), EDS Byron Nelson Championship (15), U.S. Open (22), PGA Championship (29).

Week 2 opponent: Bob Hope Chrysler Classic (2), Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard (9), Wachovia Championship (16), Travelers Championship (23), Wyndham Championship (30).

Week 3 opponent: Buick Invitational (3), CA Championship (10), THE PLAYERS (17), Buick Open (24), Barclays Classic (31).

Week 4 opponent: FBR Open (4), Shell Houston Open (11), AT&T Championship (18), John Deere Classic (25).

Week 5 opponent: AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (5), The Masters (12), Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial (19), British Open (26).

Week 6 opponent: Nissan Open (6), Verizon Heritage (13), The Memorial (20), Bell Canadian Open (27).

Week 7 opponent: The Honda Classic (7), Zurich Classic of New Orleans (14), Stanford St. Jude Championship (21), Wprld Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational (28).

Two major championships against the Week 1 and 5 opponents! That's the kind of schedule quirk that'll probably send you scrambling to figure out which opponent has Tiger Woods in his lineup.

(In TFI's case that's the Week 7 opponent, who will only have his services available at the Bridgestone Invitational.)

Hey, time for This Week's Brilliant Question:

"Sorry to bother you with such a tedious task, TFI. My buddies and I have been arguing about FedExCup eligibility and are wondering why such a player as Paul Casey is not eligible. If there are great players like Casey, who else is ineligible?"

--Ty Webb

Arguing, Ty? Isn't that beneath you? After all, if you don't play golf, for money, against people then why the heck would you care about ... oh, never mind.

The guidelines for eligibility are spelled out in a FedExCup fan guide, which notes that a player must earn official money to be eligible. That includes anyone appearing in the all-exempt TOUR priority rankings.

Another sure-fire way to figure out who is eligible is to search for their name on the FedExCup points list, which already has more than 220 players who have made the cut in at least one start.

Then again, you could always see if a player won't collect points because he's on the much shorter non-member earnings list. As the fan guide notes, these players have the option of joining the TOUR at any point during the year but will not receive points on a retroactive basis.

The points-ineligible players appeared on the World Golf Championships-CA Championship salary list when some filtering software didn't pull them from the field list supplied by the TOUR. The folks at HQ assure TFI that bug is being corrected.

And, Ty, thank you very little for asking.

One last thought: Welcome to the first week of Salary Cap Cup's second segment. Good luck!

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

• Padraig Harrington. Despite ranking in last place when it comes to the weekly favorites and sleepers picks made by pgatour.com experts, TFI should be believed when he says this guy will do much better than last year's tie for 32nd in the Shell Houston Open. He hasn't finished below a tie for 30th anywhere in the world this year and has placed top 10 in nine of his last 15 starts. (Then again, it was TFI who at the last minute ditched Tiger Woods as his WGC-CA Championship pick in favor of David Toms, so tread gingerly.)

• Bo Van Pelt. Staying below the radar more this year than the last few thanks to only two top-15s and a handful of lesser placings. Two of his best, though, were his two most recent (tied 22nd at Arnold Palmer Invitational, tied 27th at PODS Championship). Sure, he barely made the cut at Redstone GC last year but he's got the game for this year's tougher, pre-Masters course conditions.

• K.J. Choi. TFI's sounding more and more like a broken record on this one, but the guy's had one quality start after another in the last month, the lone exception being solo 79th at the Palmer. Tied for sixth last year here.

Two players TFI might waive/drop/trade away to get off his roster this week:

• Jonathan Byrd. Perhaps that tie for eighth a few weeks back in the PODS Championship should convince TFI otherwise, considering the increased difficulty of that site and all. But he's simply not feeling the love for a guy who has missed the cut three out of his last four starts.

• Darron Stiles. Five starts this season: three missed cuts, two ties in the 40s. And he's missed the last two cuts in Houston.

Rotisserie results for Expert League at WGC-CA Championship: 59.0 points (second place). First in scrambling and stroke average, tied first in sand saves, second in putting, third in fairways and eagles. Overall: 55.0 points (third place, 2.5 behind Christian Peterson of fanball.com). Paul Casey serves his purpose again with a tie for ninth (although those FedExCup points would have been nice ... ).

Rotisserie lineup for Expert League at Shell Houston Open: K.J. Choi, Padraig Harrington, David Toms, Bubba Watson. Active but not in lineup: Tim Clark, Anders Hansen, Ryan Palmer, Steve Stricker, Kevin Sutherland. Not in field: Paul Casey, Colin Montgomerie, Geoff Ogilvy.

Match-play results for Public League 3359 at WGC-CA Championship: TFI 13, koach 5. Overall: 7-3 (first in West Division).

Match-play lineup for Public League 3359 at Shell Houston Open: TFI at St. Pete Crumbsnatchers (3-5-1). Daniel Chopra, Jonathan Byrd, Anders Hansen, Frank Lickliter II. Not in field: Andrew Buckle, Mark Calcavecchia, Ernie Els, Zach Johnson, Davis Love III, Troy Matteson, Nick O'Hern, Vijay Singh. Lineup change: Dropped Darren Clarke, added Frank Lickliter II.

Salary Cap Cup results for WGC-CA Championship: The main lineup of Tiger Woods (4,725 FedExCup points, won!), David Toms (77 points, tied 45th), Lucas Glover (206 points, tied 26th), Johan Edfors (0 points, tied 45th) and Zach Johnson (735 points, tied ninth) earned 6,493 points and placed 6,296th. It ended Segment 1 with 41,909 points and ranked 385th (!). A few more breaks and TFI could have cracked the top 300 overall, but 385th is a nice way to start the season.

The "Hey, buddy" backup lineup of Phil Mickelson (263 points, tied 23rd), Paul Casey (0 points, tied ninth), Stephen Ames (182 points, tied 28th), Mike Weir (63 points, tied 50th) and Kevin Stadler (53 points, tied 68th) earned 561 points and placed 28,210th. It ended Segment 1 with 17,704 points and ranked 18,609th.

Week 12 winner: Da Mac 10,592 points.

Segment 1 leader: Idol 63 55,464 points.

Salary Cap Cup lineup for Shell Houston Open: Main lineup, Padraig Harrington $296,750, Lucas Glover $254,500, Bo Van Pelt $209,000, Nick Watney $147,250, Rich Beem $92,000. Total: $999,500. "Hey, buddy" backup lineup, K.J. Choi $287,000, Angel Cabrera $267,500, Bob Estes $127,750, Joe Ogilvie $85,500, Justin Leonard $75,000. Total: $842,750.

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.