Fantasy Crystal Ball: WGC Bridgestone Invitational

We blanked out last week on the fantasy golf post, but we'll be delivering the Prize Patrol news for July after this weekend.  In the meantime, check out 14stix.com and GolfStakes.com for great golf gear!

This week is the final actual World Golf Championships event this season.  There is another psuedo WGC in the form of the HSBC Champions events, but there is some weirdness around labeling that as a real WGC.

Firestone CC is the host coure - per usual - for a tournament that features 49 of the top 50 ranked players in the world.  Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Stew Cink, and others will be prominent in this no cut event.  Even the player who finishes dead last will make about $80,000 for stopping by in Akron for the weekend.  Not a bad deal.

Still, even without the guaranteed paycheck, this tournament has developed a reputation as pretigious.  Before this event became a WGC, it was formerly known as the World Series of Golf with essentially the same caliber of field.  Great champions were produced by this event, including Lon Hinkle's 1979 win in the event where he skipped the pond in front of the 16th to surge to a win.  The current high regard for this event is also probably because Tiger Woods has owned this tournament in his career.

That said, just pick Tiger this week.  Doesn't even matter who the other A list player you pick is.  Pick Stewart Cink or Jim Furyk for your backup because they both have great records at Firestone and each has taken Tiger Woods deep into a playoff for this title.

My running theme for other players this week will be length.  Firestone is long and, though Steve DiMeglio has said course conditions are soft, that doesn't take away from the length needed to master the course.  Therefore, I like both US Open Champion Lucas "G. Lover" Glover and Masters Champion Angel Cabrera.  They both bomb it a long way and straight.  Get them shorter irons in their hands and Firestone will be at their mercy.

Don't be afraid to pick JB Holmes this week, either.  I just have a feeling about him on this course.  He may not be particularly straight, but last year's setup was pretty kind to errant drivers.  And with how Tiger is spraying the ball all over the place, I would expect a similar setup this year.

As for the C-list, I'm looking again at Retief Goosen.  The guy surrenders leads like the New York Mets in September, but he will earn some good points this week.  And then he'll choke in the final round.

My final darkhorse for the week is Alviro Quiros.  Geoff Shackelford found a story (also by Steve DiMeglio) that said that Quiros hit a 1954 MacGregor persimmon driver over 280 yards at the range.  That's long.  If he can get some confidence with the putter and being on American soil, the guy is dangerous.