The (British) Open Championship 2018 (DBR Fantasy Contest!)

[elvis14]

First of all, I'm a very competitive person so I'm pretty happy when I win anything. I couldn't find all the payouts yesterday but thought I did OK. Mostly though, I wanted to compliment Jason and mkirsh, who instead of just taking the top 2 spots and asking for pie (or beer from DevilDeac) were more interested in getting things right. This is why I still read DBR all the time. Thanks guys.

[CDu]

Oof! "Sitting out" the first major really put a dent into my chances in the overall. Oh well, next year hopefully I'll be healthy enough for the Master's .

[JasonEvans]

At the 3/4 pole, here are the standings. See you in a few weeks for the PGA Championship at Bellerevie.

If people are up for it, we can continue the "season-long chase for the DBR Cup" through the FedEx Cup playoffs. Or not.


mkirsh - 7,396173
Jason Evans - 6,878,682
Bob Green - 5,949,873
mr. synellinden - 5,643,136
CDu - 5,440,805
Tripping William - 4,792,955
Rich: 4,099,824
killerleft - 4,065,971
Mal - 3,750,885
dball: 3,477,575
tbyers11: 3,290,435
cato - 2,863,758
Rasputin - 2,667,111
elvis14 - 2,575,518
Troublemaker - 2,501,975
DukieCB - 2,282,225
Rogue: 2,102,093
CameronB&B: 2,079,990
rsvman: 2,057,305
dudog84 - 1,944,250
HereBeforeCoachK: 1,753,595
jacone21 - 1,538,846
HouseP - 1,268,036
gotoguy - 1,074,975
Curtis325 - 847,193

I think we conclude the Majors contest with the PGA and then start a new one for the FedEx Cup Playoffs. There is little question that folks pay a heck of a lot more attention to the 4 Majors than they do to any other tournament, even the so-called "Playoffs." Plus, several folks did not even know about this game when we started and that puts them at a real disadvantage. The sooner we eliminate that disadvantage, the better.

-Jason "make sense?" Evans

[mr. synellinden]

I think we conclude the Majors contest with the PGA and then start a new one for the FedEx Cup Playoffs. There is little question that folks pay a heck of a lot more attention to the 4 Majors than they do to any other tournament, even the so-called "Playoffs." Plus, several folks did not even know about this game when we started and that puts them at a real disadvantage. The sooner we eliminate that disadvantage, the better.

-Jason "make sense?" Evans

Yes. Sounds good to me.

[mkirsh]

I think we conclude the Majors contest with the PGA and then start a new one for the FedEx Cup Playoffs. There is little question that folks pay a heck of a lot more attention to the 4 Majors than they do to any other tournament, even the so-called "Playoffs." Plus, several folks did not even know about this game when we started and that puts them at a real disadvantage. The sooner we eliminate that disadvantage, the better.

-Jason "make sense?" Evans

Sounds good. Someone smarter than me will have to figure out how we do the fedex cup - total points, just playoff points, prize money won in the fedex events, other?

[JasonEvans]

Sounds good. Someone smarter than me will have to figure out how we do the fedex cup - total points, just playoff points, prize money won in the fedex events, other?

I say prize money. Hasn't that been the metric thus far?

[mkirsh]

I say prize money. Hasn't that been the metric thus far?

I guess the question is whether we include FedEx prize money, or just the money from the individual events. I would say include FedEx dollars

[JasonEvans]

I guess the question is whether we include FedEx prize money, or just the money from the individual events. I would say include FedEx dollars

I vote no (like I have a vote, this is mr. synellinden's game).

Including FedeEx payouts will make the picks in the first couple rounds meaningless. Here are the payouts for the top 5 in the FedexCup:

1st — $10 million
2nd — $3 million
3rd — $2 million
4th — $1.5 million
5th — $1 million

I could not find the 2018 figures, but here are the 2017 payouts for 1st and 2nd place in the first 3 events of the playoffs (my bet is that 2018 will be very similar):

Northern Trust - $1.575 mil, $945,000
Dell Technologies Championship - $1.6 mil, $945,000
BMW Championship - $1.575 mil, $945,000

So, let's say I successfully picked the winner and 2nd place golfer for each of the first 3 events. My team would have a little more than $7.5 mil in our bank. Someone else in the contest managed to pull a goose-egg and not pick a single person who won a penny at the first 3 events. Everyone on their team missed the cut. But, in the championship, they pick the winner and my golfers finish no better than third. Guess who wins the whole shebang in that scenario?

There is just too much of a premium on that $10 mil prize for first place. It makes everything else not matter.

It would be like playing basketball and declaring that all baskets in the final 5 minutes of the game count for 10x their normal value (so a 3 pointer was worth 30 points). It would render the play for the first 35 minutes of the game almost meaningless.

-Jason "I get the desire to reward the ultimate winner, but I think the premium on winning it just too high in this case" Evans

[mr. synellinden]

I vote no (like I have a vote, this is mr. synellinden's game).

Including FedeEx payouts will make the picks in the first couple rounds meaningless. Here are the payouts for the top 5 in the FedexCup:

1st — $10 million
2nd — $3 million
3rd — $2 million
4th — $1.5 million
5th — $1 million

I could not find the 2018 figures, but here are the 2017 payouts for 1st and 2nd place in the first 3 events of the playoffs (my bet is that 2018 will be very similar):

Northern Trust - $1.575 mil, $945,000
Dell Technologies Championship - $1.6 mil, $945,000
BMW Championship - $1.575 mil, $945,000

So, let's say I successfully picked the winner and 2nd place golfer for each of the first 3 events. My team would have a little more than $7.5 mil in our bank. Someone else in the contest managed to pull a goose-egg and not pick a single person who won a penny at the first 3 events. Everyone on their team missed the cut. But, in the championship, they pick the winner and my golfers finish no better than third. Guess who wins the whole shebang in that scenario?

There is just too much of a premium on that $10 mil prize for first place. It makes everything else not matter.

It would be like playing basketball and declaring that all baskets in the final 5 minutes of the game count for 10x their normal value (so a 3 pointer was worth 30 points). It would render the play for the first 35 minutes of the game almost meaningless.

-Jason "I get the desire to reward the ultimate winner, but I think the premium on winning it just too high in this case" Evans

I've never done this outside of the majors so once we start talking about the fedex cup playoffs, it's beyond "my" game - but thanks for the deference. I tend to agree with Jason - the Fedex Cup winner prize money is too great and will throw this off. We could all start at $0 and do cumulative money totals for the playoff events - similar to how the majors contest has developed into a cumulative game as well. When it gets down to the last event it's going to be interesting because there will only be 30 players to choose from so there will be a lot of team overlap. I could see being somewhat far behind and having a strategy of picking all darkhorses to try to make up the difference.

[mkirsh]

I've never done this outside of the majors so once we start talking about the fedex cup playoffs, it's beyond "my" game - but thanks for the deference. I tend to agree with Jason - the Fedex Cup winner prize money is too great and will throw this off. We could all start at $0 and do cumulative money totals for the playoff events - similar to how the majors contest has developed into a cumulative game as well. When it gets down to the last event it's going to be interesting because there will only be 30 players to choose from so there will be a lot of team overlap. I could see being somewhat far behind and having a strategy of picking all darkhorses to try to make up the difference.

I didn't think about this, but we have another decision to make for the FedEx cup - are we picking our teams at the beginning and riding with those players for the entire playoff, or re-picking teams/players before each event?

[JasonEvans]

I didn't think about this, but we have another decision to make for the FedEx cup - are we picking our teams at the beginning and riding with those players for the entire playoff, or re-picking teams/players before each event?

Ooooooh! And if we are going by World Golf Ranking there is a real reward to the guy who picks players further down in the standings who manage to survive all the way. Hmmmm.

[mr. synellinden]

Both ways would be fun strategy-wise. I could go either way on that.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Woods is in.

http://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/...dex-cup-events