Fantasy Crystal Ball - Transitions Championship

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The Florida swing continues this week with the playing of the Transitions Championship at Innisbrook Resort's Copperhead Course.  This event has been played since 2000 and Transitions took over as title sponsor this season.  The event used to be played in the fall, but was moved to March when the Players Championship was moved to May two seasons ago.

Since then, scoring has taken a nosedive because Innisbrook is much windier in March than in the fall.  The key to winning is handling that wind and good par 5 scoring, as all of the par 5s are reachable.

Sal Johnson noticed this common characteristic among the last 5 Transitions winners:  Six of the seven winners were in the top-ten in greens hit with the last five winners.

That said, the ability to play from the rough and hit fairly small greens will make the difference this week.  The winning score may be no higher than -7, so patience is also critical.

I love Retief Goosen for that very reason.  He is showing form of late, was a prior champion here, and is one of the most patient players on Tour.

John Senden has finished as runner up in each of the last two years, so he is a safe A-list pick to save starts for others later.  I have not used Jim Furyk yet this year, but I think it may be time after his Sunday charge at Doral.

Believe it or not, Jonathan Byrd (you know, former Rookie of the Year) does well at Innisbrook, too.  He may be a steal.

How can you not pick Calc as a former champion?  My friend Geoff has this obsession with Calc.  He is a fan of Calc on Facebook.  This one's for him.

And, finally, for my sleeper I will recommend Troy Matteson.  He finished second here last year.  This is also a bit of payback since I wrote a column a few years back admonishing him for crushing the Fall Series but doing squat during the regular season.  His brother wrote me a nasty comment on the site where the column appeared saying that Troy works very hard.  I'm sure he does.