By Brett Avery
The Fantasy Insider
PGATOUR.COM Contributor

Haven't had enough of towering above your friends and family, bragging about the superiority of your TOUR Fantasy selections?

Looking for another challenge because you're running laps around them with the lead you've already established in Segment Two?

Then here's another chance to stick it to them (or conversely, for your acquaintances, the venue they need to prove you aren't the smarty pants of your imagination).

Say hello, girls and boys, to the last golf competition to kick off for the 2005 season: Captain's Choice.

As rules go, this is a simple as possible. The rest of the year is split into two segments of 14 weeks apiece. Each week entrants select one player from that week's Champions Tour event and one player from that week's Nationwide Tour event. No salary caps, no blackout of players already taken during the segment.

In short, pick two names (pluck them out of a hat, for all The Fantasy Insider cares). Then sit back and wait for those acquaintances to begin bowing before your immense selection prowess.

TFI is jumping onto this game with both feet in a leap that probably looks more like a cannonball. After that disastrous finish at last week's MCI Heritage, following his complete implosion in Segment One of TOUR Fantasy, he's decided that selecting four players a week is a snap.

But it also plays into the new philosophy he outlined in last week's column. If TFI's going to wean himself off the big-salary players and dig deeper into each field to find quality selections, then doing more homework on the Nationwide Tour guys is a good thing.

So each week TFI will offer his Captain's Choice selections at the end of the column and track the overall leader. Good luck and enjoy the ride.

Pick One: Vijay Singh ($300,000). The Shell Houston Open champion in two of the last three years has conquered both third-year host Redstone Golf Club (last year) and long-time site Tournament Players Club at The Woodlands (2002, when he shot 22 under par). Time to begin winnowing that Big Four list a bit, eh Vijay?

Balance: $700,000.

Pick Two: John Daly ($257,750). Normally this pick would prompt TFI to seek out the antacids beginning with the first round. But he and Geoff Ogilvy are the only entrants this week who match Singh's pair of top-10 finishes at Redstone in its first two years.

Balance: $442,250.

Pick Three: Mark Calcavecchia ($205,750). Ties for 19th and second at Redstone are a nice reflection on this veteran's knowledge, as are his three top 25s this season. At age 44 it's almost time to begin that hot streak heading to the Champions Tour, isn't it?

Balance: $236,500.

Pick Four: Jose Coceres ($144,000). That closing 73 here last year cost him dearly, although the tie for sixth was his second-best showing of the season (third at John Deere Classic). Time to make amends.

Balance: $92,500.

Pick Five: Hank Kuehne ($75,000). As long as TFI's taking a gut-buster like Daly, he might as well add this guy to attack 7,508-yard Redstone, right? A 36-hole co-leader with Calcavecchia and Fred Couples in 2003 (he split second by the end), so he's had success.

Balance: $17,500.

Hey, buddy, can you spare $920,000? Loved them, but ran out of slots or into the salary cap:

• Stephen Ames ($287,000). Coming off a tie for sixth at the MCI Heritage and tied for fourth here last year. The weakness: iffy in his last three Sunday rounds this season (75.3 average).

• Geoff Ogilvy ($251,250). Joins Singh and Daly as the only players entered this week posting top 10s the event's first two times at Redstone.

• Jose Maria Olazabal ($231,750). Discard barely missing the cut at the Masters and he hasn't finished outside a top 15 since the Nissan Open in late February. First at Redstone.

• Paul Azinger ($75,000). Uneven so far this season, missing the cut in four of seven starts, but that tie for sixth last year, in his first start in this event since 1996, is too much of a temptation.

• Jason Bohn ($75,000). His appearance here last year was the first top 20 of his young PGA TOUR career. Tends to play longer courses with more authority thanks to length (ranked 34th in driving distance, 287.6-yard average).

Last week: $211,665 (20,112nd place). Stewart Cink $12,731 (tied for 47th), Scott Verplank $130,000 (tied for 10th), Geoff Ogilvy $28,773 (tied for 32nd), Woody Austin $28,773 (tied for 32nd), Ted Purdy $11,388 (tied for 59th). Segment Two: $548,225 (32,606th place). Everyone makes the cut and this lineup still ranks outside the top 20,000? What gives?

From the "Hey, buddy" lineup, three players made the cut and totaled $530,131 (4,901st): Darren Clarke $343,200 (tied for second), Rod Pampling $174,200 (tied for sixth), Kevin Na $0 (withdrew), Justin Rose $12,731 (tied for 47th), Charles Warren $0 (missed cut). Segment Two: $2,813,664 (294th place). Would you believe that shortly before Saturday's telecast began this team had almost $1.6 million on the scoreboard? And that combined scoring average Sunday of 74.3 sent TFI to the medicine cabinet about a half-dozen times for the antacids. Ugh.

We all meant to spend at least $955,750: The maximum earnings at the MCI Heritage were $2,095,600. Begin with Peter Lonard $936,000 (salary of $244,750) and Billy Andrade $343,200 (salary of $75,000); from the other players earning $343,200 take two of the three from Jim Furyk (salary of $267,500), Darren Clarke (salary of $293,500) and Davis Love III (salary of $296,750); and from the players earning $130,000 take either Michael Allen or Matt Kuchar (each salary of $75,000). This lineup skips Thomas Levet ($174,200, salary of $228,500), Stephen Ames ($174,200, salary of $283,750), Rod Pampling ($174,200, salary of $235,000), Nick O'Hern ($150,800, salary of $270,750) and Scott Verplank ($130,000, salary of $290,250).

Week 13 winner: ParBusters $2,065,600.

Segment Two leader: chunk kings $4,205,384.

Captain's Choice: Main lineup, Hale Irwin, Brandt Snedeker; "Hey, buddy" lineup, Craig Stadler, Ryan Hietala.

Have a question or comment for TFI? Send it to him at brettavery@aol.com.