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Fantasy Golf Podcast: The little-known reason why you should pick Tiger Woods at the Valspar Championship

March 07, 2018

After showing plenty of encouraging signs at the Honda Classic, Tiger Woods is making his fourth PGA Tour start of 2018 at this week's Valspar Championship. So is it finally safe to insert the 14-time major champ into your fantasy golf lineups this week? To discuss all things Tiger, a new nickname for one of the game's rising stars, and of course, our tournament picks, Joel Beall joined me for our weekly chat. Please have a listen:

And if you're more old school and would rather just read my normal weekly fantasy golf picks, here's my fab foursome at Innisbrook:

Justin Rose: The World No. 5 didn't play well at the WGC-Mexico Championship for a second straight year, but he's been on fire all around the rest of the globe since last summer. Rose missed the cut at Innisbrook in his last start here in 2015, but had nothing worse than a T-30 in eight previous starts on the Copperhead Course.

Jason Dufner: Duf has a similar track record as Rose at the Valspar with nine consecutive top-30 finishes, including six straight top 25s. What's crazy is that his best finish in that strong stretch was a T-10 in 2012. Of course, that's probably not as crazy as whatever hat he'll wind up rocking in the Tampa area this week.

Kevin Na: With high winds expected in the forecast, the players will have their short games tested this week, which should give Na an edge. One of the tour's scrappiest players (you can't earn more than $25 million despite only having one win without being scrappy) has three top 10s at Innisbrook, including a runner-up in 2014. He's also coming off a runner-up at Riviera.

Tiger Woods: Yep, it's time. I've been holding back, but this is the week to finally plug Woods into the lineup. Yes, he's still just finding his footing again, and yes, this is his first appearance at the Valspar, but if he plays well again, everyone and their mother is going to pick him to win at Bay Hill next week so this is potentially the last week of him being undervalued. And besides, it's not like he hasn't played at Innisbrook before. . .

Sure, it's been a couple decades, but Woods teamed up with Kelli Kuehne at the 1996 JCPenney Classic. They didn't win, falling to the dynamic duo of Mike Hulbert and Donna Andrews, but look at their matching outfits on Sunday!

180307-tiger-kelli.jpg

David Taylor

Talk about squad goals.

Just missed: Henrik Stenson and Webb Simpson.

Knockout/One-and-done pick: Jason Dufner.

And here's the podcast link again, if you want to hear Joel and I jabber: