Predictions: Bay Hill

First, congratulations to Jim Furyk for his win on Sunday at the Transitions Championship. That big “whoosh” that you may be hearing is PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem breathing a sigh of relief that Furyk joins Els, Poulter, and Villegas as recent winners who might be recognizable to the more casual golf fan.

Another congratulations goes out to Team Lake Nona, for successfully defending their Tavistock Cup title on Tuesday, winning for the first time at Isleworth. Isleworth’s Nick O’Hern took the Payne Stewart Salver Award for lowest individual score, with a course-record-tying 65.

Now on to the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. The course was the most challenging non-major course in 2009, and while it has returned to a par-72 from last year’s par-70, it’s sure to have its challenges still awaiting a very strong field. I’ve got two “spotlight players” this week:

* Nick Watney. Watney finished 4th here last year, and also 4th at Tampa last week. His 2010 season started a bit slower than I’d expected, but he seems to be coming around now.

* Graeme McDowell. Regular readers know that I’m a bit partisan toward McDowell, but this is actually the first time I’ve picked him in 2010. His season also took a bit of time to warm up, but his game currently looks very solid. He played reasonably well here through the first two rounds last year, before fading on the weekend; however, his game seems to be holding up better through four rounds this year than it was at this point last year.

My Yahoo Fantasy Golf picks don’t feature a lot of the popular picks (Stricker, Mickelson, Dustin Johnson); I’ve used many of them several times already this year, and saving them for tournaments where I feel they’ll be better used.

“Front 4": Zach Johnson, Nick Watney, Robert Allenby, Graeme McDowell
“Bench team”: Stephen Ames, Pat Perez, Retief Goosen, John Senden

Last week was a pretty good week for picks. My spotlight players, Steve Stricker and Charlie Wi, finished 8th and 20th, respectively, and K.J. Choi proved an especially good B-pick, with his runner-up finish. My Yahoo team now has 1675 points, in the 76th percentile.

Best of luck to all!

The blog is back! 2010 predictions

When I decided to take a six-week sabbatical from blogging to work on 2010 scheduling and some issues in “real life”, little did I realize that “the Tiger Woods story” would explode a week later and pretty much dominate golf media until…well, it hasn’t really stopped yet.

But it’s a new year, and I’m turning the page on 2009 and its scandals and looking forward to watching the action on the links in 2010. Here are my predictions for 2010.

When will Tiger return? Probably the most-asked question leading up to the 2010 season. I’ll assume that there will be no more major developments in this case, and say that he’ll be back for the Masters, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s back at Doral. Of course, if there are further major developments, all bets are off.

The impact of some young guns. Rickie Fowler will win at least once on the PGA Tour in 2010, likely in a weaker-field event. Rory McIlroy will win at least once outside the U.S., and possibly win a major (see major predictions below). If McIlroy does win a major, he will be Rookie of the Year. If he does not, Fowler will be.

On the other side of the success coin… Anthony Kim, Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia, and Camilo Villegas will combine for a total of one win worldwide between the four of them, and it may be a European Tour win.

Kiss the trophy. Kevin Na gets his first PGA Tour win in 2010. Robert Allenby gets his first PGA Tour win in almost ten years in 2010. Jim Furyk gets at least one PGA Tour win in 2010.

Major winners: Phil Mickelson wins the Masters. Nick Watney wins the U.S. Open. Tiger Woods wins the Open Championship, unless he doesn’t play; if he doesn’t, Rory McIlroy wins. Ross Fisher wins the PGA Championship.

Ryder Cup: Europe wins the Ryder Cup in Wales. Each team fields four rookies. The margin will be 3.5 points.

Enjoy the 2010 season!