Fantasy Fix

Welcome to Fantasy Fix, where we treat every week like it's the Super Bowl when doling out advice. And if golf had its own Super Bowl, Pebble Beach, site of this week's AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, would most certainly be in the rotation. You want views? Pebble gets photographed nearly as much as Britney Spears. You want history? Pebble was the site of the most dominating performance in the history of the game. And no, I'm not talking about Dustin Johnson's four-shot win last year. Unfortunately, the one drawback is that it often doesn't get optimum weather at this point in the season, as was the case in Johnson's victory, when the wind and rain forced the cancellation of the final round. Oh yeah, there's also that $500 price tag to experience the course itself that Senior Travel Editor Matt Ginella keeps criticizing.

But Pebble Beach isn't the only star this week. The tournament features a plethora of celebrities (There's at least a 50% chance that Bill Murray gets shown on TV more than the eventual winner of the tournament) and is played on two other beautiful courses, Spyglass Hill and Monterey Peninsula. The latter was added in place of Poppy Hills as part of changes by the PGA Tour (The field was also reduced from 180 pros to 156) in order to attract more big-name pros. With the biggest name in the game still out for other reasons, it's tough to judge just how much of an impact these moves will have.

Then there are the past champions. From Sam Snead, to Ben Hogan, to Jack Nicklaus, to Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, Pebble has seen its share of great winners. A win by Arron Oberholser in 2006 pulled so much weight it prompted Arnold Palmer to select him as the young golfer at the time with the most upside. That prediction, however, didn't turn out too well. To be fair, Oberholser has had to deal with a slew of injuries, but no one cares about being fair in the world of fantasy sports. Bottom line: If the King can even be wrong, then I deserve a little slack with my picks. Here's the latest batch of nuggets of wisdom to consider:

STUDS

Dustin Johnson is the defending champion here and he's coming off a strong performance with his T3 at Riviera. A disappointing third round knocked him out of the lead for good, but nobody was going to beat Steve Stricker over the weekend -- not even Stricker himself.

Johnson's win here came in 54 holes, however, I'm sure he felt better taking full credit for the tournament knowing he had such a commanding lead. OK, I'm sure he was just happy to cash that big winning check. With the victory, he joined Anthony Kim as the only Americans under 25 to have two career wins. Speaking of A.K., after finally making his 2010 PGA Tour debut and having a good showing last week, the native Californian will not be fastening up his big belt buckle for this one. In other words, the guy works about as often as Santa Claus.

For a third straight week, Phil Mickelson is playing at a course where he's had a lot of success. That hasn't carried through for him thus far in 2010 (19th at Torrey Pines and T-45 at Riviera), but I'm banking on Lefty finally getting it going at Pebble Beach.

Plus, he's got some added motivation with Stricker moving in front of him in the lastest edition of the who-is-the-closest-but-in-reality-still-isn't-even-close-to-catching-Tiger-Woods world rankings.

When other players struggle, I stay away. But with Mickelson, it's always just a matter of time before he puts it all together. Even in his first two starts, he showed glimpses of the form that he displayed at the end of 2009 with wins at the Tour Championship and at the HSBC in Shanghai. He was in contention at Torrey Pines before a poor final round and a 66 this past Friday at Riviera put him in contention at the midway point. (Side note: Did anyone see Phil predict the winner of the big game by writing 'N.O.' on one golf ball and 'Colts' on another and then seeing which ball he could drive farther? Of course, while most of America got the game wrong, Lefty got it right with his very scientific method. I wonder if he also flips coins for money.)