Welcome to the 2nd edition of my totally unscientific, poorly researched gut hunch picks for players to look out for in this weeks PGA Tour stop. The Zurich Classic of New Orleans features a strong international contingent, more "who is no. 1" drama and, of course, our favorite for the week, Bubba Watson.
Why Bubba? Call it a complicated process of elimination (or don't). Who else do we have? Luke Donald? The world no. 3 is a great pick on the surface, playing well and with the possibility of moving up to the top ranking he has plenty of incentive. I'm not discounting his chances, but the host course for the tournament, TPC of Louisianna is LONG at over 7,300 yards and has four par fours of 480 yards or better. Not exactly up Donald's alley. You could also look at past champions and notice that K.J. Choi is quietly having a nice year, with three top tens in his last four tournaments, including a T8 in the Masters. K.J. won the tournament in 2002, when it was played on the shorter English Turn Golf and Country Club. Nick Watney would seem to be the statistician's pick of choice. No missed cuts in seven tries and five top tens, including a WGC win at the Cadillac Championship at Doral. In fact, three tier fantasy league players would be well advised to pick Watney for tier A, just make sure Bubba is on your team in tier B.
Some of the other big names present an interesting challenge when trying to figure their chances. Graeme McDowell has me wondering if he's going to be one of those players who has a career year, then changes all of his equipment deals to chase the benjamins and is never heard from again. Camillo Villegas is beginning to show some good form and could be a factor, but I would want to see a bit more consistency before I take him off of the bench. Justin Rose, last week's winner Brandt Snedeker, Steve Stricker, local boy David Toms and Spencer Levin would all be viable picks and worth a shot in tiered league formats.
I just can't help but think that this will be Bubba's week. He can hit 480 yard par fours in driver 8-iron, plays well in this event nearly every year and his game seems to be rounding in to form. Plus, we're playing in Nawlins, y'all. How can you not like a guy named Bubba?
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