The Masters

The best week of the sports year has rolled into full swing, with the Butler-Duke game being the highlight so far. Um, I'll take that UTEP pick back about now. Anyway, baseball will be all over this space in the upcoming days, but today, the space is reserved for the azaleas and Magnolia Lane, and you can only look at this blog between 3 and 6 PM on Thursday and Friday.

To start things off, I'm knee deep in Masters related action this week, and I should fill you in on how some of that is going. I'm in one of those A, B, and C pool leagues where you can pick two guys in each grouping. My picks were Harrington and Poulter (A), McDowell and Clark (B), and Kuchar and Eduardo Molinari (C). I could have taken two of Tiger, Phil and Ernie, but I wanted to win if I hit on my top guys, and I think Harrington and Poulter are going to be rare picks considering the names available in the A pool.

I'm also in a straight seven team snake draft where we each get six guys. The draft is going on as we speak, but the top 11 picks are off the board, and they are as follows.

Steve Stricker
Tiger Woods
Phil Mickelson
Ernie Els
Padraig Harrington
Paul Casey
Retief Goosen
Lee Westwood
Jim Furyk
Matt Kuchar
Ian Poulter

I had pick four, and have Els and Poulter.  I LOVE that combo.  They are both top five on my board for the week.  I even offered to deal later picks for the chance to move from 11 to 10 and grab Poulter, but he picked Kuchar before seeing my email.  Thank God.

Why do I love Ian Poulter so much?  Gut feeling.  I think he breaks out big this year and he's said himself Augusta and St. Andrews are the two major courses that suit his game best.  Poulter hasn't top ten'd here, but he plays well, and his game is at a new level in 2010.

To me, Ernie and Tiger are the favorites.  Ernie is playing his best and wants the blazer so badly.  He plays well here and should be in the mix on Sunday.  Tiger is always the favorite and if you think he isn't going to play well, you shouldn't be playing fantasy golf.  Love Tiger this week.

The next tier is Harrington, Goosen, Mickelson, Stricker, Westwood and Poulter.  All these guys should play well, with Lefty leading the charge with the two jackets.  Goosen is playing really well and Paddy is close to form and is another multiple major winner.  Stricker never had success here until his sixth in 2009, but he didn't have a lot of success anywhere prior to 2008-9.  Westwood has knocked on the door in multiple majors the last couple years.

Of the previous non winners, Furyk, O'Hair, Watney, Ogilvy, Casey, Cink, Donald, Clark and Campbell all have played well here multiple times in the last five years.  Of those guys, Watney, Clark, Casey (assuming health) and Furyk seem to be close to their better form right now.

Past winners include wildcards Freddy and Vijay, who seem unlikely to contend this year due to age and ails respectively.  Cabrera, Weir, Z. Johnson and Immelman have also been in the winners circle in the past decade here, but none are playing well right now.

Sleepers?  Steve Flesch has finished fifth and sixth the last two years.  Charl Schwartzel hasn't played the hallowed grounds, but is clearly a top 20 player in the world right now.  Kuchar is also playing very, very well, and his dad presumably won't be on the bag.

The Masters is obviously so star studded that a win by any of 20 or 30 players wouldn't come as a total shock.  We haven't even mentioned Mahan, Allenby, Kaymer, Kim, Sergio, Villegas or Stenson and those guys are obvioulsy world class players as well.  So, how do we sort out this mess?

Most Talent
Woods
Mickelson
Els
Goosen
Mcilroy?

Course History
Woods
Mickelson
Els (Not lately, but five straight top 6's when he was on form)
Singh
Couples

Who's Hot?
Els
Kim
Goosen
Furyk
Schwartzel

Who's Not?
Mickelson
Z. Johnson
Glover
Garcia
Cabrera

My Picks (in order)
Woods
Els
Poulter
Harrington
Goosen
Mickelson
Stricker
Casey
Westwood
Schwartzel

Cheers,
TFAM