Fantasy Fix

Through the use of statistics, trends, course-matchups and sometimes a magic eight ball, we will do our best to help you set your fantasy golf lineup

Fantasy Fix favorite Tim Clark returns to action for the first time since his breakthrough win.

Crowne Plaza Invitational At Colonial

Where: Fort Worth, Tex.

Course: Colonial C.C.

Defending champion: Steve Stricker defeated Tim Clark and Steve Marino in a playoff.

Purse: $6,200,000

By Alex Myers

Photos by Getty Images

May 25, 2010

Welcome to another edition of Fantasy Fix, where playing hooky to go play golf is always accepted.

Next up, the PGA Tour concludes its three-week Texas swing at the Colonial. Like the Byron Nelson, the Colonial has a strong tradition (In fact, it's the longest running non-major PGA Tour event to be held at the same site). Unlike the Nelson, it actually boasts a strong field.

Jordan Spieth, 16, was the talk of the golf world last week as his performance breathed some much-needed life into an otherwise bland Nelson. Meanwhile, Jason Day, who at 22 could have been confused for Spieth's slightly-older brother, came out of nowhere (six missed cuts and no top 20s in 2010) to capture his first PGA Tour victory. It's clear that with the depth on tour right now, any given week can be a breakthrough for any given player.

To that point, a co-worker made a huge jump in the standings of our one-and-done pool at work with his pick of Brian Gay, who finished T-2. His astute reasoning for the selection? The fact that he had recently posted this delightful "What's In My Bag" feature on our web site. I saw a construction crane on my way to work. Perhaps I should take Ben Crane this week. Ahh, fantasy sports. Now for some (hopefully) more sound reasoning, here are some thoughts.

STUDS

Tim Clark: What? Just because he won the Players Championship doesn't mean we're going to stop pumping up this Fantasy Fix favorite. It was here last year where Clark reached perhaps the low-point of the best-player-never-to-win portion of his career. He blew a two-shot lead with five holes to play and had putts of inside 10 feet to win on both the final hole of regulation and the first hole of a sudden-death playoff. On the second hole, Clark's approach shot hit the stick and bounced 20 feet away, while Steve Stricker stuck one to three feet to close out the tournament.

After losing, a devastated Clark said "I have a lot of work to do when it comes to closing out golf tournaments." Mission accomplished. Fast forward to now when people are still buzzing about his bogey-free final round at TPC Sawgrass. While winning for a second straight start after it took him 206 tries is unlikely, the South African clearly isn't a one-hit wonder.

As for a man looking to become No. 1, Phil Mickelson certainly can't be overlooked at a venue where he's won twice, most recently in 2008. Lefty couldn't defend his title last year while on break to spend time with his ill wife, but he can overtake Tiger Woods in the world rankings with a victory this year. Something tells me he'll be pretty motivated.

Jim Furyk can't climb to the top spot in the rankings no matter what he does this week, but he does enter this event as one of the front runners in the race for player of the year. In half of his last 12 trips to the Colonial, Furyk has finished in the top 10, including two runner-ups.

Another top 10 player, Ian Poulter, has shown a quick liking to this event with a solo eighth and a T-15 in his only two trips. In eight career rounds at Colonial, he has never shot over par, amassing a tidy scoring average of 68.

And it looks like the recent King of the Colonial may be rounding back into form just at the right time. There was finally a Kenny Perry sighting at the Nelson last week, though a final-round 73 dropped him from T-4 to T-16. The performance was the Kentuckian's best since starting the season with a T-6 at the SBS Championship.

Perry turns 50 in about six weeks, and while it's possible he's slowing down, keep in mind this is a player who won a total of five times over the past two years and racked up more than $9 million in earnings. He still has game and I wouldn't bet against him on a track where he's won twice (both with 261 totals, a tournament record) and accumulated more than $2.6 millon. (Side note: Ben Hogan won a grand total of $3,000 for each of his wins here in 1946 and 1947 -- the first two years the tournament was played. That's probably what Perry tipped the locker room attendant on his way out the door.)