Fantasy Golf: The AT&T National Preview

Let's blow through this preview so I can get back to putting the finishing touches on the long overdue U.S. Open wrap-up.* Not to mention this tournament has already lost a little luster because, with Tiger bailing, they should change the name to The Groupon Open in light of the two dozen offers for half-price tickets I've received in the last week. Remember that this was also the tournament that did not allow spectators on Saturday last year because storm damage left so many trees in a precarious condition. So to recap, in 2011 Congressional was maligned for having the easiest U.S. Open course in history, in 2012 they had a spectator free Saturday and in 2013 Tiger bailed on his own tournament due to injury. I think it might be time for Congo to have the "it's not you it's me" talk" with the PGA Tour.

I hate agreeing with Rob Bolton's Power Rankings but it's hard to ignore all of the factors in Jason Day's favor this week (plays great at Congo, just finished 2nd at the U.S Open, hot wife, etc.). I'm also going to keep riding Billy Horschel until he cools-off or the New York City Police Department finally catches-up with him. Adam Scott finished 3rd here last year, Bo Van Pelt (who has been uninspiring at best this season) finished 2nd and is due to get on track and Jimmy Walker may be the best player on tour who has never won** (and it's going to take at least one win to get him out of third place on the list of famous "Jimmy Walkers").

"Wait, this would be awesome for
hitting out of buried lies in the bunker."

The AT&T National Top Five

1. Jason Day
2. Billy Horschel
3. Adam Scott
4. Jimmy Walker
5. Bo Van Pelt

Travelers Report Card: C-

1. Hunter Mahan - T24th
2. Jason Dufner - M/C
3. Webb Simpson - T5th
4. John Rollins - MDF
5. Padraig Harrington - T72nd

Those crummy picks can be summed-up by the 80 that Padraig Harrington shot on Sunday and the quintuple bogey John Rollins made on the tenth hole in the third round when he was actually still in contention. Rollins was of course my pick for the week continuing my post Matt Kuchar at Memorial slide. On sort of a lighter note, at least I didn't pick Bubba and then watch him dump the tournament in the lake on 16 like it was a dead body after he decided to hit 9-iron on a 178 yard par three that was all carry and then blame his caddie, Ted Scott, when it came-up short. If I was Ted, the next time Bubba faced a shot over water I'd say, "Bubba, as your caddie I feel compelled to mention that (a) there is about 200,000 square feet of water between us and the hole and (b) golf balls don't float . . . now put a solid swing on it big guy."  

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Endnotes

I'm saying Wanderlust is
underrated, on many levels.

* Of course that is if you consider ten days "long overdue." But isn't it time that we took a break from our go-go lifestyles with our fax machines, two-way pagers and conference calls and took some time to reflect back on what will surely be remembered as a vintage U.S. Open? In the words of Justin Theroux's character Seth from Wanderlust, "you know you can really get trapped in that web of beepers and Zenith televisions and Walkmans and Discmans and floppy discs and zip drives, laser discs, answering machines and Nintendo Power Gloves." I couldn't agree more Seth. That's why I have "Classic Rewind," "Classic Vinyl" and "The Bridge" among my Sirius presets. (Take my word for it, there is no better cure for road rage than a solid set of Elton John, Cat Stevens and Gordon Lightfoot . . . "If you could read my mind love, what a tale my thoughts could tell . . .").

** Temper that enthusiasm with the fact that I just picked Walker up on both of my season-long teams which seems to have a cooling effect and, by "cooling effect," I don't mean that it makes the player cooler, I mean it makes him play like crap.