The Loop

Fantasy Fix: Why Jim Furyk's winless drought will end in Texas

March 25, 2015

What an odd season it's been on the PGA Tour. Through 19 events, we've seen 19 different winners, yet three golfers have already repeated in tournaments they won last year. In other words, if you've been picking defending champs, you've probably been doing pretty well. Maybe we should start using that strategy this week with the Valero Texas Open. Last year's edition was won by. . . let's see here. . . Steven Bowditch. Hmm. Maybe we'll start next week. Sorry Steven, but here's who we're going with in our Yahoo! weekly lineup instead:

Starters -- (A-List): Jim Furyk. The Grinder is coming off a rare bad performance (T-40 at Innisbrook), but he's fared well in his two trips to the difficult TPC San Antonio. Furyk has shot under par in seven of his eight rounds to finish T-3 and T-6 the past two years on what he described last year as a "tough, grueling golf course." Does anyone enjoy those more than Furyk?

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(B-List): Jimmy Walker. Perhaps, playing in front of a home crowd will lift Walker out of his recent lull. The San Antonio resident hasn't finished in the top 20 in three straight events. More telling of how he's played this season, though, is he still sits atop the FedEx Cup standings.

(B-List): Jordan Spieth. The 21-year-old Texan looked great in picking up his second PGA Tour title at the Valspar Championship two weeks ago. Even more impressive? He did it while in the process of buying his first house.

(C-List): Brendan Steele. A winner at TPC San Antonio, Steele also backed up that lone PGA Tour title with a T-4 the following year. Now, Steele is playing the most consistent golf of his career with 14 straight made cuts, including a runner-up at the Humana Challenge.

Bench/Backups: Jim Furyk, Matt Kuchar, Zach Johnson, and Justin Thomas.

Knockout/One-and-done pick: Jim Furyk. This is the week! We can feel it! The long winless streak stops here! Hey, if we're going to continue to have a different winner on tour every week, the seventh-ranked player in the world has to win eventually. . . right?

Previously used: Keegan Bradley (Bay Hill), Paul Casey (Honda), Jason Day (Famers -- WINNER!), Luke Donald (Valspar), Jamie Donaldson (Doral), Bill Haas (Riviera), Charles Howell III (Sony), Dustin Johnson (Pebble), Geoff Ogilvy (Hyundai), Ryan Palmer (Humana), Brendan Steele (Phoenix).