Fantasy Crystal Ball: St. Jude Classic

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This week, the PGA Tour rolls into Memphis and TPC Southwind for the St. Jude Classic.  Sponsored by Stanford Financial until the SEC fraud charges were levied, the event still boasts one heck of a field.  Obviously, the featured players are Phil Mickelson and John Daly.  Mickelson returns to the Tour for the first time since it was revealed that his wife Amy is fighting breast cancer.  Daly returns to the United States after the finish of a six month suspension from the PGA Tour and a pretty successful stint on the European Tour.

I don't think either will be particularly successful this week, but am glad to see both in the field.

I do think that defending champion Justin Leonard is ripe for a solid finish in his title defense.  He's playing solid golf of late and has won this very event twice.  There is no doubt that the combination of liking Southwind and current form will bode well for him.

Also, pick up David Toms.  Do it now.  He has six top 10 finishes in Memphis, has been playing well this entire season, and is a real bargain in almost any fantasy game.

I'm going to take a flier lie and recommend Henrik Stenson.  This is his Open tune up to get used to the much faster American greens.  It always seems that when the Swede makes his way to the States, good things happen.  I would expect the same at a top notch course like Southwind.

Another foreigner who I think will do well is Robert Allenby.  He seems to like this course, came in second last year and 12th the year before that.

A good dark horse would be Scott Verplank - he has back to back top ten finishes at Southwind.

Finally, I'm going to go out on a limb and recommend Sergio Garcia.  Sure, he's probably still spinning The Cure records and looking at pictures of him and Morgan-Leigh Norman together, but he has to come around sometime.  He finished fourth here last year so it seems that there is no better place for him to get his act together.

Whoever wins, they will probably hit a ton of greens for the week.  As Sal Johnson points out in his tournament preview, the winner here generally finishes in the top tier of the field in that area.