One game closes as another game opens...

Although the 2009 Fantasy Race to Dubai still has another couple of days to run, the 2010 Fantasy Race to Dubai game is already live at http://racetodubai2010.fantasyleague.com (promotion from the European Tour website should appear from later today).

The same rules apply as for 2009, so use the lessons you learned this year!

The first counting event is the Alfred Dunhill Championship on 10th December, although I doubt many of the fancied names to finish in the top 15 will take part in this particular event (both McIlroy and Westwood played last year, but wouldn't expect them to do so this time. However, I would anticipate appearances from the some of top South Africans, such as Els, Goosen and Schwartzel).

Just entered with a lucky dip for now it did not throw up to bad a side.

That's because there's a pool of only 30 players which are selected by the Lucky Dip (still provides over 155 million permutations), essentially assuring that entrants using this method don't end up with the likes of Scott Drummond...

Here's a twist....Dubai World has asked for a 6-month moratorium on its debts, causing debt rating agencies to slash the ratings on various institutions there (DW is govt-backed). This will increase borrowing costs (when you are actually paying the debt off).

Dubai World owns DP World, which sponsors the Dubai World Championship and RTD (I believe the latter point is right). Also owns Leisurecorp - which just managed to get Turnberry finished for the Open this year!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8380105.stm

On first inspection, it seems that only Els and McGowan from the top 15 in 2009 are scheduled to play in the first event of the 2010 Race to Dubai:

http://www.europeantour.com/default.sps ... infosid=10

(By the way, I believe that the European Tour aren't going to publish the link to provisional entry lists until just a few days prior to each event going forward, but if you know the event ID (which you can find by clicking on/hovering over the event in question), you can easily amend the URL for a previous entry list to access the relevant entry list page.)

Hi Mr Green, thanks for the link to the provisional field for the Alfred Dunhill

Only dabbled at 2009 R2D for the last three weeks, so would the general selection policy for 2010 R2D be as follows:

1) Select 15 players all playing in Alfred Dunhill Championship in the hope that some of them might have a good tournament and more importantly season and make the all important top 15. No point in picking anyone not playing as I understand it you have unlimited substitutes in this game (albeit you lose the money the player you drop has earned whilst selected in your team).
2) Drop the worst performing players in your team on a weekly basis as likely top 15 players (Westwood etc.) start playing in subsequent tournament.
3) Hope you get very lucky!

Is the FISO league for R2D 2010 set up for me to enter my team into yet?

Man United's #1 Fan

Yep. You got it...but be careful not to hold on to players (at the expense of another player who is ultimately more likely to finish in the top 15 and also due to play in the next event) just because they've got 100,000 euros in the bag - this is only a small proportion of what is required to finish in the top 15.

But if you do have players in this situation, at least you have the choice...

It's safe to say that Martin Erlandsson will be taking a swift exit from my RTD team next week, having plummeted to +10 when scoring is otherwise proving very easy...

Also good to see Aiken starting the 2010 season as he spent most of the 2009 season - -5 on his first 9 including a hole-in-one, then +4 on the front nine. Normally he at least waits for a separate round before blowing up

Week 1 Leaderboard:

http://racetodubai2010.fantasyleague.co ... pd=overall

25th place for MU#1 and 45th place for MU#2, so how many teams in this competition so far Mr Green?

Man United's #1 Fan

As you may have noticed, the 'Prize Money' field on this leaderboard isn't currectly correct (in that it's showing the overall prize money rather than earnings from the top 15 only) - not that it differs much at this stage, but explains why teams in joint second have different amounts of prize money.

Unfortunately, it is against company policy to give details about entry figures in any of our competitions on public forums, although it is usually quite easy to extract rough figures from the sites themselves - especially if you're in a big Private League.

Having said that, many teams will not start accumulating any money until the 'big guns' come to play for the Abu Dhabi Championship (at which time those entrants that have picked players involved in the 'African Swing' will have some decisions to make...)

@ Man United's #1 Fan:

Teams with zero points are in joint 4,102nd position after first event.
Looks like there are about 6,400 entries to date.

I take it we're all adding McGowan and Soren Hansen this week?

I like those odds...

Lister can confirm that the Titleist driver is superb... I also use the 909D and must say that's a great prize on offer.

I couldn't see past both either Toffee - both in R2D and NCG Comps

Doh!

How can a professional golfer be so inconsistent?!

To make matters worse, Richard Finch was another victim of my cull earlier this week. However, it'll almost certainly turn out to be irrelevant in the grand scheme of things...fingers crossed, anyway!

Actually it may even help in the long run as it avoids having to make tricky decisions to bring one of the more likely final 15 players in whilst having to oust someone who has made a quick 200k at the start of the season. And besides, the correlation between postions at the end of Day One and those at close on Sunday isn't very strong. Just thought it was amusing as the one guy you singled out.

Good luck!

quote]

How can a professional golfer be so inconsistent?!

To make matters worse, Richard Finch was another victim of my cull earlier this week. However, it'll almost certainly turn out to be irrelevant in the grand scheme of things...fingers crossed, anyway![/quote]

Imagine Erlandsson has probably been working hard on the practice ground, not to mention turning up at the venue two days early!

Regarding selections apart from the obvious Hansens I added in Sam Hutsby to one of my teams, maybe a bit ambitious to think of him in the top 15

Man United's #1 Fan

After a three-week hiatus for the festive period, the Dubai race resumes at 0445 GMT this Thurs 7 Jan with The Africa Open.

Top ten after opening two events:

Manager - Team Name - Prize Money
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1 gamba franco, 15 fab, 708,000
2 robert slade, redges rebels, 688,000
2 maurice mchugh, Rathdowney, 688,000
2 MJ McHugh, Celtic Aces, 688,000
2 John Thompson, BombersBoys, 656,000
6 Oliver Pelkeit, Rhythm Golfers, 685,000
7 Richard Hadley, Meet me at the 19th, 678,000
8 Alan Ainsworth, Miracle or Mirage, 674,000
9 peter o' melia, paddy wackers, 666,000
10 Sue Hitchman, Sue's 2010, 663,000
10 Verner Bager, Vollschwung, 617,000

Seeing as this could be my high point, I'm elated to be 17th in the Top 15 Leaderboard, and 2nd in the FISO League.

FISO Top 10:
robert slade redges rebels 881000
Simon Holman Let's Casey the joint 846000
Stuart Turner Lessons Learnt 828000
Colin Robertson Man United's #1 Fan 814000
steven liggins Liggos Aces 814000
Kaigee Wong o Tiger Woods o 814000
Shaun Cooper Toffeelover 799000
Matt Sims King Of The Dun-hill 767000
Rob Powell Big Birdies 767000
Tony Murnaghan Spiders From Mars 767000

Messrs Cooper, Green, Murnaghan and Kdub lurking in the pack at this early stage.

Top 17 ( ) overall:

1 Alan Ainsworth Miracle or Mirage 991000
2 Kyle Stefan Team Stefan 959000
3 BHARAT PATEL Bazzer 951000
4 STEVE OLIVER NEVADA SMITHS 926000
5 marisel lopez raqueros 912000
6 gamba franco 15 fab 881000
6 robert slade redges rebels 881000
6 maurice mchugh Rathdowney 881000
6 MJ McHugh Celtic Aces 881000
10 James Ellis best hit another 880000
11 John Thompson BombersBoys 869000
12 Rob Richardson RICHO GOLF 866000
13 peter o' melia paddy wackers 859000
14 Sue Hitchman Sue's 2010 855000
15 Ian Hart Woods' Bit Of Rough 853000
16 Steven Baxter gerrard8 847000
17 Enrique Sanchez Real Free Drop 846000
17 DI BENEDETTO Arcoiris 846000
17 Christian Ott Against all Otts 846000
17 Peter Bradbury Pete's Pearlers 846000
17 S Holman Let's Casey the joint 846000

Start Fantasy League Golf 2010!!!

Do it Mr Green.

Do it.

Er...you'll just have to wait, I'm afraid. There's rugby, motorcycling, fund management and F1 games scheduled to launch even before I get onto FL Golf.

Anyway, back to more relevant matters for this thread - it's D-Day (decision day) for the Race to Dubai game on Wednesday, with 12 of last year's top 15 scheduled to make an appearance in the Abu Dhabi Championship.

Personally, I could only spot nine "shoo-ins" for the top 15 involved in this week's event (although the omission of Kjeldsen is admittedly a bit risky), so have actually left five players from the 'African Swing' in my team. Schwartzel is a no-brainer given his earnings and form, but the others (Clarke, Hansen x 2 and Willett) may well end up being temporary.

Of the others that have bitten the dust are Aiken, Edoardo Molinari and Sterne - despite being higher in the rankings than some of those I've kept - but I can't see any of these three being consistent enough over the season to challenge the top 15.

What have others done?

Mass clearance for me this week - 10 out so very much as yourself Matt. Just which 10 !

Seems to be a problem with the web-site tonight which is rather unfortunate timing!

I haven't managed to encounter a problem (but is always useful to provide more specifics to help diagnose a possible problem), but if you're still having issues, send an email to mr.green@fantasyleague.com with your required selections.

Hi Mr Green et al,

It is back up now.

Sorry I didn't specify - I assumed a quick look would show. Basically the graphics weren't loading so the page that loaded had only text and some of the hyperlinks weren't working either. i couldn't access the teams from the leaderboard - probably related to the graphics issue.

It is possible there may have been a connection issue at my end but highly unlikely given that my other 7 tabs were loading as fast as normal.

Will let you know directly if something comes up again.

Yes, more than likely a temporary issue with one of our image servers, which would have been automatically rectified, but local cache settings could prolong the agony.

The solution to this, although annoying, is to try and try again (deleting your cache between attempts if possible).

Anyway, pleased that all is now well.

I've wreaked carnage on my team. The usual suspects have been fired......and while I have left Soren Hansen in currently, I've hoofed Anders Hansen. In top pundit fashion, I am going to state that he will not make the Top 15. So I'm saving myself the agony of culling him when he's earned 500K or so.

Unfortunately, my crystal ball has gone on the blink and I can't find out if Kim is going to win a Major this year and so I should get him in now.