2015 Masters Fantasy Golf Picks
The Masters has finally returned and Augusta National Golf Club will play host to the greatest golfers in the world for the 81st time. Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth are among the favorites to win, but let's take a closer look at our fantasy golf picks for the season's first major.
Right away you will notice a glaring omission from my Masters fantasy golf picks above: Rory McIlroy. While the Ulsterman is the Vegas favorite heading into the week (6/1 at the time of this writing), Rory has had an extremely inconsistent season to this point.
In his three tournaments on the PGA Tour schedule this year, Rory has missed a cut and finished in the top-10 (2015 WGC Cadillac) once. On the other hand, his European Tour resume since October has been absolutely scalding: two wins (2014 PGA Championship, 2015 Omega Dubai Desert Classic) and three runner-up finishes (2014 Dunhill Links, 2015 Dubai DP World Tour Championship, 2015 HSBC Abu Dhabi). The World No. 1 will have the eyes of the world on his every move this week -- when they aren't affixed to Tiger Woods, of course -- but Rory will have to play the tournament of his life to pull this off. I don't think this is the year.
For names like Henrik Stenson, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed and Rickie Fowler, however, 2015 might be the year one of these deserving players finally break through with their first major. The first three names will be in contention as soon as they step on the course while Fowler's major performances in 2014 (four top-5's!) have more than earned him ample consideration.
Bubba Watson and Ryan Moore are slight longshots this week -- yes, even though Bubba is the defending champ -- but both have shown flashes of brilliance already this season. Both players will serve as fitting bench players on your fantasy golf picks roster in the event you'll require their services later in the week.
That leaves us with Jason Day and Paul Casey; two men on opposite ends of their playing abilities but in prime position to win their first major championship. Day has played extremely well over the last few years at Augusta while Casey seems to weasel his way onto the leaderboard at brief intervals in years past. I'm picking Day as the eventual champion for the week, but don't be surprised if Casey shocks the world out of nowhere.
