The TOUR finished up its Florida swing and now moves over to Texas before taking a quick break for a little tournament called…oh what’s the name of it… oh yeah, The Masters. Last year Anthony Kim beat Vaughn Taylor in a playoff and then went on to have a great week at Augusta. They set the course up with slight similarities to Augusta for players playing the following week to get used to the greens and undulations. That’s why the Shell has a marginally good field, which is a rarity the week before a major.
It’s not often you pick the winner of a tournament and still have a horrible overall week. That was my week last week where I picked Martin Laird but just had the wrong players starting on the wrong days. I missed Laird’s 65 while starting Woods. I missed Chris Couch’s great opening round while cringing through Snedeker’s 80. And on it went.
Matt Kuchar continues to be a Top 10 machine again this year, and with a strong showing at the Shell in 2010 I like his chances this week. Lee Westwood will be tuning up his game for next week where he finished 2nd to Phil Mickelson in last year’s Masters. Westwood has had good success at the Shell, and it’s tough to discount the former world #1, so he’ll be on the bench to start.
Despite Spencer Levin’s violent, childlike outburts and semi meltdown last week, it’s hard to leave him off the squad with the success he’s had this year. He hasn’t finished outside the top 15 since early February and ranks 3rd in scoring average. Steve Stricker hasn’t had much success since early on this season and he’s slowly inching his way back to form. His game fits well to the course this week, and it’s tough to argue against his putting stats.
For the C group I’m taking a bit of a gamble and starting University of Houston alum Fred Couples. Boom Boom hasn’t played all that much this year, but I’m hoping he’ll react well to the hometown crowd and pull of some prior great finishes at the event.
Starting Foursome: Matt Kuchar, Steve Stricker, Spencer Levin, Fred Couples
Bench Players: Lee Westwood, Charl Schwartzel, John Senden, Aaron Baddeley
My Year-to-Date Stats are:
Current Points: 1868
Points Last Week: 115
Current Percentile: 96th
Winners picked so far: 2
Top 5s picked so far: 15
About Jeff Palopoli
Web marketer, father, husband, and golf blogger continually searching for the golf game I used to have.
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