Fantasy Crystal Ball: Farmers Insurance Open (at Torrey Pines)

Phil Mickelson is the headliner this week at Torrey Pines as the PGA Tour heads to San Diego.  (For the record, the Farmers Insurance Open is the official, true beginning of Tiger's self-imposed absence.)  He has and will draw a lot of attention this weekend.  But you may want to consider not putting him on your fantasy team.  Though he has won the tournament thrice, Lefty has not fared especially well since the redesign of the South course for the US Open.

There are slim pickins on the A List this week, though.  For that reason, I'm going to pick Mickelson and continue the charade from last year that I know precisely when Steve Marino will win.

The defending champion is Nick Watney, who was basically given the tournament last year by John Rollins and Camilo Villegas.  I always pick the defending champion.

Charles Howell III is off to a good start, so I suggest taking a look at him this week.  Dustin Johnson is off to a hot start, too, but he'll be on the bench for me.  To round out the team, I'm taking a chance on Hunter Mahan in his first start of the year.

The C List is absolutely loaded with people this week.  More than the A and B List combined.  On the plus side, that means there are a lot of unknowns about who will perform this week.  On the down side, that means your choices are among guys not playing well, rookies, has-beens, and never-weres.  You could literally guess at anyone.

I'm going to go with - ohhhh - Tommy Armour III and Brandt Snedeker.

My methods aren't always scientific, but my unscientific endorsement of Bubba Watson almost turned out to be true.

Good luck this week!