The Fallout Shelter presents the 2008 SJ.com Masters Pick 'Em (scores final!)

Welcome to this year's Masters golf pick 'em. Standing in for the departed Freelance Hack, we have me.

I've played around with the past formats. Basically, what I wanted to do was encourage more variety in the players picked; I've seen too many fields where the top teams only differ by one or two players. Hopefully, I've done away with that. And in anticipation of the Tiger problem (everybody picks the same player from Group I), I've tried to inventively do away with it.

Here's a quick rundown of the rules:

1. Given Eldrick Woods' dominance of late, I expect almost everybody to pick him. So I took him out of contention from the main competition and made him the star of the tiebreaker. That way, your golf knowledge is challenged.

2. Each team must pick one player from each of the 6 pools.

3. Scoring: Each round, a team's score will comprise of the scores of its four lowest golfers. At the end of four rounds, the team will the lowest four-round total wins. No playoff scores will be counted.

4. If any team loses more than two of its players for any reason after the start of the first round (cut, DQ, injury, WD), it is disqualified.

5. Teams must be submitted no later than 3 a.m. ET Thursday, April 10, 2008 (that's the stroke of midnight for WestCoast.sportsjournalists.com).

6. If a player withdraws from competition prior to the start of the Masters, that team may replace said player only prior to the tournament's start at 8 a.m. EDT Thursday, April 10.

7. Tiebreaker: Post what you think Tiger will score, broken down by rounds (i.e. 70-74-71-70). This will set up a two-stage tiebreaker: 1) Closest to Tiger's total stroke score and 2) Aggregate of total strokes per round between your forecast and Tiger's actual. With the example tiebreaker score I gave, suppose he turns in cards of 69-76-73-68--286. The difference per round adds up to 7 strokes, while the difference in the total score is one stroke (285).

Please post your teams with the following format:
Team name (Member entering)
GROUP I: Player name
GROUP II: Player name
GROUP III: Player name
GROUP IV: Player name
GROUP V: Player name
GROUP VI: Player name
Tiebreaker: Tiger's projected score, broken down by rounds

Pools to follow momentarily.

(Eh ... it was the only sponsorship available. So I took it.)

 

Re: The Fallout Shelter presents the 2008 SportsJournalists.com Masters Pick 'Em

And here's the player pools. As noted in the sig, direct all complaints to /dev/null.

GROUP I
Americans eligible as either a past Masters champion or winner of a major within five years (PICK 1):
Fred Couples
Ben Crenshaw
Ben Curtis
Ray Floyd
Jim Furyk
Todd Hamilton
Zach Johnson
Shawn Micheel
Phil Mickelson
Larry Mize
Mark O'Meara
Craig Stadler
Tom Watson
Fuzzy Zoeller

GROUP II
Internationals eligible as either a past Masters champion, winner of a major within the past five years or winner of The Players Championship within the past three years (PICK 1):
Stephen Ames
Angel Cabrera
Michael Campbell
Retief Goosen
Padraig Harrington
Bernhard Langer
Sandy Lyle
Geoff Ogilvy
Gary Player
Vijay Singh
Mike Weir
Ian Woosnam

GROUP III
Americans who qualified through a high finish in a 2007 major or by winning an amateur major (PICK 1):
Jerry Kelly
Trip Kuehne
Arron Oberholser
Vaughn Taylor
Michael Thompson
David Toms
Scott Verplank
Bubba Watson
Drew Weaver

GROUP IV
Internationals who qualified through a high finish in a 2007 major or by qualifying for the 2007 Tour Championship (PICK 1):
Stuart Appleby
Paul Casey
Tim Clark
Luke Donald
Nick Dougherty
Ernie Els
Niclas Fasth
Sergio Garcia
Richard Green
Ian Poulter
Andres Romero
Justin Rose
Rory Sabbatini
John Senden
Camilo Villegas

GROUP V
PGA Tour winners since 2007 Masters and top 30 from the 2007 PGA Tour money list, not otherwise eligible (PICK 1):
Steve Stricker
K.J. Choi
Aaron Baddeley
Adam Scott
Mark Calcavecchia
Woody Austin
Hunter Mahan
Brandt Snedeker
Charles Howell III
Boo Weekley
John Rollins
Stewart Cink
Steve Flesch
Robert Allenby
Brett Wetterich
Heath Slocum
Nick Watney
Brian Batemen
Jonathan Byrd
Daniel Chopra
D.J. Trahan
J.B. Holmes
Steve Lowery
Sean O'Hair
Johnson Wagner

GROUP VI
Top 50 from the World Golf Rankings, both at the end of last year and the last eligible week, not otherwise eligible (PICK 1):
Henrik Stenson
Trevor Immelman
Lee Westwood
Toru Taniguchi
Nick O'Hern
Miguel Angel Jimenez
Shingo Katayama
Robert Karlsson
Richard Sterne
Soren Hansen
Anders Hansen
Martin Kaymer
Justin Leonard
Peter Lonard

 

Re: The Fallout Shelter presents the 2008 SportsJournalists.com Masters Pick 'Em

The Flying Toasters (2muchcoffeeman)
GROUP I: Jim Furyk
GROUP II: Padraig Harrington
GROUP III: David Toms
GROUP IV: Stuart Appleby
GROUP V: KJ Choi
GROUP VI: Justin Leonard
Tiger-breaker: 70-72-71-68

 

Re: The Fallout Shelter presents the 2008 SportsJournalists.com Masters Pick 'Em

NO ONE GIVES A FUCK ABOUT YOUR FANTASY GOLF TEAM

GROUP I
Tits Mickelson

GROUP II
Vijay Singh

GROUP III
Scott Verplank

GROUP IV
Luke Donald

GROUP V
Adam Scott

GROUP VI
Miguel Angel Jimenez

Tiger-Breaker: 71-69-70-68

 

Re: The Fallout Shelter presents the 2008 SportsJournalists.com Masters Pick 'Em

Doc, where's your tiebreaker?

 

Re: The Fallout Shelter presents the 2008 SportsJournalists.com Masters Pick 'Em

Look again.

 

Re: The Fallout Shelter presents the 2008 SportsJournalists.com Masters Pick 'Em

Fast on the edit button, huh?

 

Re: The Fallout Shelter presents the 2008 SportsJournalists.com Masters Pick 'Em

Yup. 8)

 

Re: The Fallout Shelter presents the 2008 SportsJournalists.com Masters Pick 'Em

The Meeping Beakers
Group 1: Jim Furyk
Group 2: Paddy Harrington
Group 3: Scott Verplank
Group 4: Stuart Appleby
Group 5: Adam Scott
Group 6: Nick O'Hern

Tiger-Breaker: 72-69-70-69

 

Re: The Fallout Shelter presents the 2008 SportsJournalists.com Masters Pick 'Em

Masters of Their Domain (Barsuk)
GROUP I: Jim Furyk
GROUP II: Geoff Ogilvy
GROUP III: Jerry Kelly
GROUP IV: Ernie Els
GROUP V: K.J. Choi
GROUP VI: Peter Lonard
Tiger-breaker: 72-69-70-73

 

Re: The Fallout Shelter presents the 2008 SportsJournalists.com Masters Pick 'Em

73 on a Sunday? Oh, ye of little faith.

 

Re: The Fallout Shelter presents the 2008 SportsJournalists.com Masters Pick 'Em

Counting on tough weather and tough pins.