This week marks the 16th event of the 2014-15 PGA Tour season, as the Tour remains in Florida for the WGC-Cadillac Championship. Each week, a panel of experts will offer up their picks from four groups of players, based on Golf Channel’s fantasy game, Fantasy Challenge. We will also keep track of their scores and standings. The panel includes: senior writers Rex Hoggard, Randall Mell and Jason Sobel; editorial director Jay Coffin; associate editor Will Gray; ‘Morning Drive’ host Gary Williams; host Charlie Rymer and defending fantasy champion Ryan Lavner.
Rex Hoggard
Group 1: Rory McIlroy: Consider last week’s missed cut at the Honda Classic an aberration, even more so considering he went out on Monday at the Seminole Pro-Member and scorched the course with a 63.
Group 2: Dustin Johnson: Another power player who had an “off” week at PGA National but is a perfect fit for the new-look Doral and already has two top-5 finishes this season.
Group 3: Anirban Lahiri: For those who don’t know the name, learn it. Lahiri has won two of his last three starts in Asia and has climbed to 35th in the world.
Group 4: Ross Fisher: The Englishman has been as consistent as anyone on the European Tour since late last year, with two runner-up showings and not a single missed cut since September.
Jason Sobel
Group 1: Rory McIlroy: Go ahead. Jump off the bandwagon after last week’s missed cut. I’ll stick with a guy who’s too good for another stinker.
Group 2: Jim Furyk: He’s been trending in the right direction since this year’s late start and shouldn’t veer far from that at Doral.
Group 3: Jamie Donaldson: Nearly everything he’s accomplished in the past year – Ryder Cup clincher; PGA Tour membership – was forged during last year’s runner-up at this event.
Group 4: Gary Woodland: It’s been a slow month for a guy with immense talent, but expect a big win sometime in the very near future.
Will Gray
Group 1: Bubba Watson: I’m definitely taking a chance by leaving the world No. 1 on the bench, but I’ll take my chances with Watson, who has a pair of runner-ups in the last three years at Doral and hasn’t finished worse than T-14 in four starts this season.
Group 2: Dustin Johnson: A missed cut at PGA National ended his hot streak, but he still had a pair of top-five finishes before that and now heads to Doral where he has three top-12 finishes in the last four years, including a runner-up in 2011.
Group 3: Jamie Donaldson: The Welshman was a runner-up at Doral last year and he has been quietly successful in the U.S. already this year, following a T-19 finish at Torrey Pines with a sixth-place showing at the Honda behind a final-round 66.
Group 4: Alex Noren: The Swede spent a lot of time on the disabled list recently, but he appears to be rounding back into form based on a run of three straight top-11 results earlier this year, a stretch that was highlighted by a runner-up in Dubai.
