Fantasy : Fantasy Golf Preview: The Shell Houston Open : Fantasy Golf Strategies

The Shell Houston Open Preview

Redstone GC Tournament Course, Humble, TX

Defending Champ: Stuart Appleby

Well, it's about that time of year when Tiger starts toying with people like he did last week at Doral. I had a feeling that he would come out and blitz the field after a disappointing previous week and I'm fairly sure everyone else had the same thought process. Good for us. Not everyone picked Brett Wetterich to be the one knocking on Tiger's door so I had a good week and my picks ended up catapulting me from second place into a rather large lead.

THIS WEEK...

The Shell Houston Open is like watching batting practice before a ball game. Most fans, and players, are getting ready for Augusta and with the weak field, I'd rather just make my picks for next week now. Unfortunately, fantasy golfers don't have the luxury of taking a week off so I'll do my best to duplicate last week's performance.

MY PICKS

"A" Players: This field sucks! David Toms knows the golf course as well as anyone considering he played a role in designing Redstone, but he hasn't been playing very good golf and hasn't done well here either. Stuart Appleby is the defending champion but he's been struggling too. KJ Choi finished in the top ten last year and has played as well as anyone in the field this week. Adam Scott can't find his game.

FINAL "A" PICKS: KJ Choi and Jose Maria Olazabal

"B" Players: This class at least gives us some options this week. Paddy Harrington is the best option and may be the favorite to win the tournament. Not only has Lucas Glover played well here in the past, he has ties to this golf course and was trained by Dick Harmon, who recently passed away and did his work at Redstone. Nobody will want it more than Glover. Aside from those two, I passed up John Sendon for Bo Van Pelt and Steve Flesch, with absolutely no reasoning behind that decision. My hunches have been lucky lately.

FINAL "B" PICKS: Padraig Harrington, Lucas Glover, Bo Van Pelt, Steve Flesch

"C" Players: Not much to report in this class. This is ugly. With no clear cut favorite I'm going to play it safe and pick the guys who I feel have played the best in recent weeks. That didn't work because nobody's even played in recent weeks! Might as well pick whoever's name you like best.

FINAL "C" PICKS: Bubba Watson and Harrison Frazar

Good luck!

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