The staggered scoring of the TOUR Championship might not have bunched the top of the leaderboard at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, but it sure bunched it in the Zoar Golf Club PGA TOUR Fantasy Series finale.
Three fantasy contestants tied for the top spot of the TOUR Championship, when their best 8 players of 12 picks resulted in an eye-watering 124 under par total: Eric Coleman, Matt Jurcevic and Steve Riley.
Since there were only 30 players in the field broken down into four tiers, the percentage is high that many teams would share many of the same players. And this was certainly the case with the winners, as all three teams had the same players in the first two tiers:
TIER ONE:
-27 Viktor Hovland
-14 Rory McIlroy
-11 Scottie Scheffler
…and…
TIER TWO:
-13 Patrick Cantlay
-16 Wyndham Clark
-10 Max Homa
The deciding factor for determining these top three teams was choosing Rory McIlroy (-14) instead of John Rahm (-7) in the top tier of players. If you picked Rahm in Tier 1, it was tough to overcome those seven shots.
All three of the top-finishing teams also selected Xander Schauffele (-22) in the Third Tier.
From there, it took different combinations of Tommy Fleetwood and Collin Morikawa (both at -11), Sepp Straka (-9), Rickie Fowler and Tyrrell Hatton (both at -8) to reach the 124 under par total and a share of the winner’s lucre.
SIDE NOTE: Viktor Hovland and Xander Schauffele both finished at an actual 19-under par at East Lake Golf Club, before any Fedex Cup shots were added to their totals. What a playoff that would have been had there not been a staggered start! Wyndham Clark was next best at 12-under par actual for the week, which shows how well Hovland and Schauffele played.
FINAL RESULTS: 2023 Tour Championship Fantasy >
The playing of the TOUR Championship and determining the winners of the monstrous pay from the Fedex Cup concludes the 2023 season for the Zoar Golf Club PGA TOUR Fantasy Series. So let’s see which contestants did the best across the entire nine tournament season!
Josh Prok cashed three times and earned a Series leading $404.50. Paul LaGrotteria won money twice, netting $245.00. and although Jeff Meyers only won one time, his $205.00 first place take from the U.S. Open garnered him third place overall on the year. (Of course there was more than one way to do some betting on the U.S. Open.)
It was fun to play the Zoar Golf Club PGA TOUR Fantasy Series this year, and to follow the different contestant’s stories from each event. There were a couple of times when it looked like a contestant had a big payday in the bag, but the scores on the last couple of holes of a tournament led to a big fantasy leaderboard change, which is exciting. So if a company is willing to sponsor the Series in 2024, we’ll likely run it again.
Thank you to Zoar Golf Club for acting as sponsor of the Fantasy Series for the 2023 season!
