Another year of Fantasy Golf Challenge is in the books.
Phil Mickelson, who had a tough season on and off the course, finished on a high note by taking home the Tour Championship trophy and reclaiming his No. 2 spot in the world rankings.
Lefty made a small tweak in his putting stroke which seemed to work wonders at East Lake, as he led the field in putts per GIR and was second in total putts. He also finished fifth in driving distance, 12th in fairways and fifth in greens.
Tiger, on the other hand, couldn't get things going with the flat stick, as he finished three shots back thanks to a T22 in putts per GIR.
Woods did enough to take home the $10 million, while 'mrxakanashuaron' did enough in Fantasy Golf Challenge to edge last week's leader, ‘Shank', and take home the $2,000 grand prize for the overall title in our little contest.
Both contestants used Woods (second), Jim Furyk (T7) and Marc Leishman (T28) in their lineup for the Tour Championship, but ‘mrxakanashuaron' went with Sean O'Hair (T3) and Zach Johnson (T16), who combined to earn 723,500 points, while ‘Shank' used Steve Stricker (T3) and Scott Verplank (22), who made just 408,000. That was enough to give ‘mrxakanashuaron' the win by 264,682 points.
See, it pays to listen to me (O'Hair) sometimes! Not saying ‘mrxakanashuaron' did that by any means, but I'll assume so until told otherwise.
My team of Woods (second), O'Hair (third), Furyk (T7), Jerry Kelly (T10) and Dustin Johnson (27th) earned me 2,052,000 (2,103rd) in the final week. In Segment Four, I finished a very respectable 98th and first in the Beer Cart League (for what that's worth!). Overall, I finished in 1,514th place, which is a lot better than the 3,587th spot I finished in last year.
I hope you enjoyed our 36 weeks of fun, and I appreciate all of you who read my columns and e-mailed me with suggestions, questions and complaints.
As you all know, picking Fantasy Golf isn't an exact science, especially when you don't get nearly as much news about the players as you do in say, Fantasy Football or Fantasy Baseball. You really just have to go with historical stats, recent form and, of course, just go with a hunch now and again.
I hope to see you all back here in 2010 for another season of Fantasy Golf Challenge. Until then, enjoy the Presidents Cup, the Fall Series, Q-school, and keep your ball on the short stuff -- those of you that can play at this time of year, that is.
Cheers.
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