Gather around, gather around! It is time once again to tee it up in the first week of (some) fantasy golf seasons. While the rest of the sports world focuses on the BCS Championship, NFL playoffs, the NBA and NHL, we turn our attention to paradise (otherwise known as the Hawaiian Islands) for the SBS (formerly Mercedes) Championship. We know the field fairly well, as all of these guys won at least one official PGA event over the course of the 2009 season. This can cause trouble in salary cap leagues as you don’t have many low-cost alternatives to help you fit under your limit, but at least it is a no-cut event!

Ogilvy looks to repeat last year's victory at Kapalua. Photo Credit: SN#1

Yes, Tiger Woods is out, but he wouldn’t have played this week anyway, normally eschewing all events until February. Family guy Phil Mickelson also will be marked absent, so the field is wide open for the rest of the winner’s fraternity to grab some easy early-season cash. Yes, it is no-cut, but it is not like throwing darts at a board, is it? Let’s take a look!

SBS Championship
Purse - $5,600,000.00
Winner Share - $1,200,000.00
FedEx Cup Points – 3500 (500 to winner)

Course – The Plantation Course, Kapalua Resort, Maui, Hawaii
This course has a special place in my heart. My beloved mom (a non-golfer) took a picture on the 18th green of the Plantation Course a few years ago, much like her trip to the now “parking-lotted” Boston Garden. Have I ever been? No. Does she golf?  No. Life can be so unfair….

I digress. Kapalua is a fun event for the golf fan. We see golf played late in the evening (remember the time zone difference) on a course that is soaked in sun and warm breezes (as the rest of the United States shivers). Huge elevation changes make 650 yard par fives like the 18th hole reachable, and the westerly trade winds make the standard 150 yard approach shot an exercise of frustration. Maybe someday I’ll get to play it, but until then, let us look at those who are playing in the very immediate future.

Weekly Picks –

This week is more like splitting hairs – we don’t have much to go on in regards to momentum as most have been off since early November. We only have 28 players listed in the field at the time of this writing. All of them are good (they won in 2009, after all) but some make more sense than others and several have played in this event prior to this year.

Steve Stricker
Stricker is like that familiar pair of jeans that you just love to wear. Other jeans you own might be more stylish, less worn, and more – ahem -- flattering, but Stricker just gets the job done year after year. Three wins (Crowne Plaza Colonial, John Deere Classic and Deutsche Bank Championship), 11 total Top 10s, and a third place finish in the FedEx Cup race in 2009 makes him a no-brainer in this no-cut field. He finished second in the 2008 Mercedes Championship on the Kapalua course as well. Go ahead, walk around in those jeans!

Zach Johnson
Johnson didn’t luck into this event with a surprise win in 2009 – that’s for sure. The out-of-the-blue winner of the 2007 Masters has proven to be no fluke with four additional wins over the course of the next two years. Two of those took place in 2010 with triumphs at the Valero Texas Open and ….. wait for it …… the Sony Open. Why the emphasis on the Sony? It takes place in week two of the season, in Hawaii and it is a full-field event.  We expect another win or two from Zach this season and a potential Top 10 at the SBS Championship this weekend.

Sean O’Hair
O’Hair appears on a certain fantasy golf site’s “B” Tier in 2010, which will make him a very popular guy over the course of the season, as Sean has A-level talent. O’Hair won the Quail Hollow Championship (formerly the Wachovia event) and finished second at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and third at the Tour Championship. Surprisingly his scoring average was a bit high (70.45) for someone that won over $4.0 million last year. And how did O’Hair do last year in the Mercedes Championship? How does a handy solo fourth sound? Keep appraised of your other pick's cap value if you play in salary leagues, as O’Hair is a known quantity and will cost you in that format.

Geoff Ogilvy
We would be remiss if we didn’t give Geoff props in this year’s opening event – he won the event last year! A notoriously quick starter, Ogilvy plays an Australian tour schedule prior to jetting half way across the Pacific to Hawaii. This puts him in mid-season form while others are shaking off Christmas rust. Ogilvy won the 2009 WGC Accenture Match Play as well, and cooled off at the end of the PGA season, so it makes sense to get some early season starts out of him while he is fresh.

Stewart Cink
Cink has about six more months of time to call the Claret Jug his own, and due to that victory he will be making his second straight SBS Championship appearance. Stewart is almost underrated in our eyes. Many consider him a one-hit wonder due to the surprise British Open win, but the fact remains he has won five other times in his long PGA Tour career. Cink also started fast at the WGC Accenture Match Play in 2009, finishing third.

Y.E. Yang
The darling of the PGA Championship arrives at Kapalua for his first ever invitation to the winners’ only showdown. We doubt he will be star-struck, as Yang has stared down Tiger in the final round of a major, putting the only blemish on Tiger’s “majors won while in the lead after the third round” record that commentators love to tout so much. Yang’s world ranking bumped up from 480 all the way to 31st after his two win season last year, and we won’t be surprised if he ends up in the Top 20 if his strong play continues.

Angel Cabrera
What did Cabrera win to get into this field?  Oh yeah, another surprise major championship winner! Actually that type of attitude is unfounded for Cabrera, who won the U.S. Open Championship title in 2007 while holding off “Mr. Taking Some Time Off to Get His House in Order”. That makes him the only two time major championship winner in the field other than the sneaky-good but notoriously slow-starting Retief Goosen. Cabrera takes over the “tough interview” title this week as well, seldom speaking a word of English on TV (recall the awkward Butler Cabin interview last April).

Paul Casey
If the salary cap isn’t a concern then lucky you – Casey is the seventh ranked player in the world but is tiered in the lower levels due to the fact that he declines to play a full schedule on the PGA (only 12 events in 2009). Casey’s three Top 10s in those 12 events included a victory at the Shell Houston Open and a runner-up finish at the WGC Accenture Match Play (losing to the aforementioned Ogilvy). Allow yourself this luxury early in the year – it is seldom the case that Casey is available to go “to bat” for you (Thank you, I’ll be here all week. Don’t forget to tip your waitress…).

Salary Cap Options –
If you read our column last year you know that we tend to build out our roster picks based more on stats, momentum, past history, and solid hunches. Oftentimes that leads to a roster heavy on studs and light on low-cost alternatives. Here are a few options if you are beating your head against the wall trying to fit under your cap limit:

Jerry Kelly
The ultimate grinder will appreciate the invite to this no-cut money grab. Six Top 10s in 2009 due to a near-elite 70.01 scoring average.

Brian Gay
Two time winner in 2009 is still under-appreciated in fantasy golf circles. Ranked 46th in world rankings.

Ryan Moore
The man in the Castro-style hat won the Wyndham Championship last year, but more importantly doubled his Top 10s finishes in 2009 in comparison to 2007 and 2008.

Overheard on the Range –
Tom Watson has confirmed his appearance in the Dubai Desert Classic later in the year. On the same note, John Daly (newly minted in a sub-200 lbs. body) has accepted a sponsor’s exemption in the Sony Open the week after the SBS Championship. Prior to the happenings on Thanksgiving weekend, Tiger Woods won the Australian Masters in his first attempt since 1996.

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