PGA Tour Picks - Intro

Hello again folks. Been awhile since the last post but a trip to Athens, OH will delay a lot of things.

Anyways, the PGA Tour has begun its 2009 season and while many may not see this as a big deal, it truly is. And no, not because of the actual golf but because of the golf picking challenge Luke and I have.

Here's the history behind it. Luke and I have always been betting men. Sometimes, they've been friendly bets like when if the Pope will die before the Yankees win the World Series (still waiting for either to happen). Other times, they've been monetary (in which he has won more). So we decided to start a little something for the long PGA Tour season 2 years ago to see yet again who was better with predictions.

The challenge has a simple concept: pick 2 golfers in the field who you think will do the best each week in the given tournament. Add their total together and whoever has the better total wins. But nothing in life is that simple. The rules, that are somewhat confusing, are as follows:

1. The winner of the week gets 1st pick in the next week's tournament. The loser then gets picks #2 and #3, leaving the 4th pick to the winner. In the case of a tie in the week, the previous' week's winner goes first again.

2. In an effort to keep both of us from picking Tiger Woods (the world's #1 and most dominant golfer) every week and adding a little strategy to this challenge, both of us are only allowed to pick him 3 times during the entire golf season.

3. If either Luke or I pick the tournament winner using our 2 picks, we earn another opportunity to pick Tiger Woods in a tournament. This includes if Tiger himself is the winner.

4. In major tournaments and the 4 FedEx Cup events, strokes will be doubled. (Ex. -10 = -20, +6 = +12, etc...)

5. In the WGC Match Play Championship, Luke and I will pick it March Madness style, with a correct pick increasing in value as the rounds get further (1-2-3-4-5-6). The person with the most total points at the end earns another opportunity to pick Tiger Woods in a tournament.

6. If a chosen golfer misses a cut (2nd or 3rd round), the total for that player will either have 5 strokes added to their score or 3 strokes added to the worse score of the tournament. This applies to the majors and FedEx Cup events as well.

7. If a chosen golfer withdraws or is disqualified, the person who chose that player must change their pick to (one of) the playing partner(s) of the golfer once the round is complete. If it is the final round, the playing partner of the chosen golfer automatically becomes the score used.

8. During WGC events and the British Open, the secondary PGA Tour tournaments (ex. The U.S. Bacnk Championship in Milwaukee) will also be chosen. However, Luke and I will only choose one golfer and it will NOT be worth double strokes.

9. The challenge begins with the Mercedes Championship on January 8th and ends with the final FedEx Cup event, THE TOUR Championship on September 27th.

10. The winner of the challenge wins pride. Well, that and first pick for the next season.

In an effort to have full disclosure, Luke took Vijay Singh with his first pick for the Mercedes Championship. I then chose Anthony Kim and Ernie Els. He then took Camilo Villegas. My golfers finished with a total of -33 while Luke's golfers finished -17. The winner was Geoff Ogilvy so we both still have 3 Tiger picks left.

You can keep tabs on our picks and the challenge in the top left corner of the blog. I will update it as soon as I can every Sunday.