We are already into week 3 of this thing and its becoming pretty evident that I need some practice! I can tell you one thing, I sure didnt have J.B. Holmes picked in only his fourth PGA tournament ever. That kid hits the ball a mile and he can putt too, scary! After some late adjustments to last weeks picks here’s how I did…
My four picks at the FBR Open included Scottsdale’s favorite Phil Mickelson, another leftie Mike Wier, Joe Ogilvie, and Jonathan Kaye. Phil provided some thrills for the partisan this weekend and a strong finish shot him all the way up to a tie for 7th. Joe Ogilvie had a solid, if not spectacular week and finished in a tie for 12th. So half of my team did alright but Weir and Kaye both struggled and missed the cut by a couple of shots. A number of the young hotshots have been playing well this year, it will be interesting to see who can keep it going this week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is actually played at three world-class golf courses along the ocean in California: Pebble Beach, Poppy Hills, and Spyglass Hill. Because this tournament is four rounds played at three different courses a big key here is consistency. Players who are able to play steady golf for all four days will fare well. I don’t expect that we will see too many low rounds like the 62 that Phil Mickelson fired at Spyglass en route to his victory last year. This is always a fun tournament to watch, it attracts some of the biggest names on the PGA Tour to some of the biggest courses in the U.S. and the celebrities are always entertaining.
My first pick for this week is one of the most underrated players on Tour, Tim Clark. The South African is one of the best putters on tour and makes a ton of birdies. He finished in fourth place at this tournament last year and is coming off of a tie for 10th at the Buick Invitational. He’s not very long off the tee but hits the ball straight and always seems to play well on the West Coast.
Jesper Parnevik has played a lot of golf this year and he has played well. Some tinkering with his swing and equipment seems to have Jesper off to a strong start this year. He said his new Titleist 905R has been a big key to his recent success. I am betting that Parnevik will pick up his third top ten of the season this week.
Joe Ogilvie is my third pick for pretty much the same reasons that I picked him last week. And he had a strong showing last year finishing in a tie for 16th.
My final pick this week is Arron Oberholser. He has had a good start to 2006 with three top 25’s in three starts and a T10 last week at the FBR. Oberholser also played well in this event last year finishing T6. He hits a lot of greens in regulation and that will prove to be very valuable this week at the AT&T.
And there you have it, my top four fantasy picks for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Have a good week and I will talk to you all again next Tuesday.