News
Fantasy Fix: Should Phil Mickelson be in your lineup at Pebble Beach?
By Alex Myers
How about that Graham DeLaet, huh? No, he didn't win at TPC Scottsdale as we predicted, but he came pretty darn close. Then our Super Bowl pick came through. In other words, we're on fire! How confident are we now? Bring on the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am! As in, the actual pro-am. Oh, Yahoo! doesn't let you pick a lineup of celebs? Too bad. We'll just stick with the pros then.
Starters -- (A-List): Patrick Reed. This category is pretty thin this week if you're not confident in a struggling Brandt Snedeker (the defending champ) and an injured Phil Mickelson. We'll favor Reed, a winner last month who also finished T-7 in his first trip to Pebble last year. And if a certain lefty and four-time winner of this event gets rolling, well, we'll stash him on our bench.
(B-List): Dustin Johnson. Yes, he'll be playing with his future father-in-law, Wayne Gretzky, but it won't be for the first time. More importantly, DJ has won this event twice and should have won a U.S. Open here in 2010.
(B-List): Hunter Mahan. Our pick in this slot last week made a weekend run at TPC Scottsdale to finish T-4. We think he's just getting a big year started, and his great ball-striking should give him an edge with Pebble's small greens.
__(__C-List): Jimmy Walker. Sure, he missed the cut in his last start at Torrey Pines, but Walker remains the only two-time winner thus far this season -- a reason we gave him his own theme song. He also happens to have three consecutive top 10s at Pebble, including a T-3 last year.
Bench/Backups: Phil Mickelson, Jason Day, Chris Kirk, and Graeme McDowell.
Knockout/One-and-done pick: Jimmy Walker. What are the odds a guy who hadn't won on the PGA Tour until four months ago gets a third win this season before anyone else gets two? Probably not very good. But while if we had to predict one guy to win, we'd say Hunter Mahan, we think we'll hold off on using him just yet. Well, one pro, that is. Kenny G seems like a lock in the celeb category.
Previously used: Tim Clark (Sony), Graham DeLaet (Phoenix), Bill Haas (Farmers) Charles Howell III (Humana), Martin Laird (Kapalua).