Fantasy Crystal Ball: Arnold Palmer Invitational
by Ryan Ballengee on Mar 25, 2010 12:11 AM EDT
in Fantasy Golf
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PrintThis week is Arnie's week. It's the King's tournament at Bay Hill in Orlando. In the backyard of Tiger, the Golf Channel, and countless pros, this is one of the most cherished events on Tour. The King has made changes to his track for 2010, including restoring par to 72 after several seasons with it at an arbitrary 70. That has literally nothing to do with determining the winner, but it is worth noting.
With the notable exception of Tiger, the field is pretty solid this week. Last week's winner Jim Furyk is in the field and somehow on the B-list, so he will be on the squad. Sean O'Hair could do pretty well if he can get the slow play rebukes of Johnny Miller out of his head...oh, and the memory of that crushing defeat at Tiger's hands. I'll round out the B team with Hunter Mahan. Why not Robert Allenby either?
Steve Stricker has been absent from this event for the better half of a decade, but returns this week. In a rare swerve, I'm not selecting him or Phil Mickelson. Mickelson has sufficiently wasted his self-described "opportunity" with Tiger Woods' absence and appears to be more of a headcase than ever. Until he starts hitting fairways, he can tee off with a putter for all I care.
Instead, this is a Steve Marino kind of week. With two top tens this season, including a runner up, Marino is a good pick when trying to save up true A-listers.
In the event that you missed the Transitions Championship, Stephen Ames appears to have resurrected himself for a few weeks. Stick him on the bench and hope for the best.
All Tim Clark does is finish well and not win. He is the perfect fantasy golfer. And he's a great pick this week.
My final pick is a dirtbag. Paul Goydos seems like the kind of crafty guy that could get into the fight this weekend. That'll make Goydos my sleeper pick of the week for a tournament surely not to disappoint.
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Hey Ryan
Not for nothing but, if it isn’t bad enough that 2 thirds of your blogs are about TW and or make reference about him , but do you HAVE to belittle the other players along the way ? Hence Goydos and Phil. That seems to be your trend lately and one of the big reasons many of us left TGC site to come over here. Just looking for a little fairness in reporting please. Thanks in advance. ^5’s
"pain is only weakness leaving the body"
“…Memory of that crushing defeat at Tiger’s hands” ??? RB – can we skip the “crushing weight of that cliche” ? A month after losing at Bay Hill – O’Hair won at Quail Hollow….“crushing” Tiger Woods by two shots. I’m pretty sure he’s ok.
Pro – he put the quotation marks around the wrong word. Mickelson would have had to play pretty much every week with top 5’s and a couple of wins to make a dent in Tiger’s ranking.
Instead of quotes around “opportunity”, they should have been around dirtbag and should have been capitalized….“Dirtbag”. Remember – he’s a big supporter of the University he played at, and a big fan of the baseball team at Long Beach State U, who are nicknamed “The Dirtbags.”
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Court, thanks for getting in here on the dirtbag explanation. I completely disagree with the “opportunity” quote, though. It is a direct quote of Mickelson.
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroomryan, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
by Ryan Ballengee on Mar 25, 2010 10:10 AM EDT up reply actions
a one word quote ? that’s like me putting quotations around “quote” because you said it and I’m quoting you…wait…my “q” key is stuck….there it goes. :-)
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Because I don’t want people thinking that I was implying myself that Mickelson had an opportunity. I know he didn’t, at least as far as the OWGR go.
It is these kinds of things about writing techniques that seem to generate so much discussion here. Progolf didn’t take the 30 seconds it would have required to understand the Goydos reference or remember that Mickelson himself has been touting his “opportunity” for three months now. Neither was a cheap shot. Neither really had much of anything to do with Tiger. But, of course, the assumption is made wrongly and then the charges are levied.
I seem to have to say this every three months or so, but I assume that you guys are all smart enough to understand the allusions that I make here. Some of the time, some of you whiff so bad on what I’m actually saying as opposed to what you think I wrote. I cannot tell you how annoying it is when I come into a thread to see 20 comments on semantics that could have been cleared up with a better reading of what was written.
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroomryan, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
by Ryan Ballengee on Mar 25, 2010 10:15 AM EDT up reply actions
And at no point am I going to start footnoting my articles to explain golf or social references.
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroomryan, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
by Ryan Ballengee on Mar 25, 2010 10:16 AM EDT up reply actions
nobody is saying you need to footnote – just be a little more clear on the statement. That’s the kind of thing that the quotee gets mad at the quoter for taking what he said out of context.
And yes – Phil HAS missed an opportunity to close ranks with Tiger – but the guy can hardly be blamed for his early play because his head and heart were back in San Diego worrying about the wife and mother. There isn’t a need to put quotes around the word – the one thing you can pretty much be sure of is that people know that Phil has not played very much high level golf this season.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
The quote is needed because it’s what he said, not what I’m saying.
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroomryan, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
by Ryan Ballengee on Mar 25, 2010 10:24 AM EDT up reply actions
court thanks for the clarification
I wasn’t aware of the dirtbag reference, however you get my point hence your O’Hair reference. It’s not mine to tell Ryan what to put in to his own website, but some fairness in reporting with good balance is in order. We left TGC blog for similar reasons. To much TW and belittling of other players.
"pain is only weakness leaving the body"
Lets see.
“In the backyard of Tiger”
“With the notable exception of Tiger”
“and the memory of that crushing defeat at Tiger’s hands”
with Tiger Woods’ absence and appears to be more of a headcase than ever
Must there be so many references made about TW in so many articles ? Perhaps this short article about Arnies tournament could have been written without FOUR references or none at all. I just don’t see the need especially when TW is not even playing this week.
Just my humble suggestion and recomendation. thanks !!!!
"pain is only weakness leaving the body"
1. Tiger lives in Orlando, and I mentioned “tons of other pros” as well.
2. Tiger has played this event every year of his pro career except this season, a fact worth noting.
3. Sean did lose to Tiger last year, right?
4. Mickelson said he has an opportunity to make gains on Tiger while he’s been out.
They all seem pretty benign to me except perhaps the first.
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroomryan, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
by Ryan Ballengee on Mar 25, 2010 10:54 AM EDT up reply actions
Very true on Tiger living in Orlando…but his back yard is Isleworth, not Bay Hill…a little confusing with the Tavistock Cup finishing up just two days ago.
Who doesn’t know that Woods isn’t in the field this week with all the “news” going around ? You decided that was a detail that needed to be in, but not Goydos’ college affiliation that hasn’t been mentioned in two years ?
O’Hair won a month later with Woods in the field – might have been said a different way other than Tiger-centric – but that’s one you can get away with…it was just put in such a cliche manner.
Mickelson says a lot of things – he also said that he was disappointed that Woods wouldn’t be playing – that it is harder to go out 100% without him in the field. You put one word in quotes, expecting your readers to pick one common word out of everything the guy has said since last Thanksgiving. And you left out the difficulties he has had to deal with back home.
See how easy it is to confuse people ?
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Ryan, for shame, for shame
now go sit in time out for 2 minutes…STUB
& don't forget your vast overseas following:)
who wouldn’t pick up on dirtbag either. I did do a doubletake, though, because you don’t normally badmouth players like that – especially someone you were about to pick.
Ryan - Thanks for the tips
Ever felt like sending us all to the sin bin for a month unless we promise not to nitpick?
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