After successfully resisting any kind of fantasy sport leagues over the years, I broke down this year and joined a fantasy golf league.
My previous reservations had a lot to do with the image of the fantasy league participant (nerdy guy living in his parents basement, perhaps:)), the amount of time required to be successful (way too much for my liking) and, mostly, I never wanted my viewing of sporting events to be ruled by the results of some random fantasy pick rather than an enjoyment of watching the event unfold. So, I have persistently avoided (and I suspect I will continue to do so) all forms of team fantasy leagues.
But, I thought, what the heck, a golf fantasy league has to be a different beast than say a football league. So, I made the plunge and I am now one week into my league.
The results of my picks for week one were somewhat disappointing since I had third round co-leaders Webb Simpson and Dustin Johnson on my team. Sunday night found me licking my chops in anticipation of a first week sweep. Needless to say, neither one did much during the final round which is reflected in my 21st place out of 30 teams in our league.
However, I did have some interesting observations after week one.
I did find myself paying more attention to a tournament whose outcome I normally would have had very little interest in. I am not sure if this is good or bad. I’m guessing time will tell.
Watching the eventual winner (Zach Johnson) rise and my guys fade really didn’t have much of an impact on my enjoyment of watching the tournament so that is a real positive.
In the same vein, picking a winner of a golf tournament in an expanded field seems nearly impossibility considering that only a handful of players one more that one event in 2013. With the number of extremely capable golfers on tour now, every week is a virtual crap-shoot.
Fantasy golf (or any other fantasy league) has almost no connection to the real sport.
So, I’ll keep making my picks until I grow tired of doing so or (maybe) until I am so far down the leader-board that I decide to raise the white flag. But, please don’t ever ask me to join your fantasy curling league, I just may tell you where to stick that rock.