If your bracket in the Golf Channel Fantasy Challenge went up in flames Thursday night, take solace – you were not alone.
In fact, if your overall winner advanced into the second round, consider yourself lucky. You’re among a stark minority of users still able to boast that their predicted champion is alive and well in this week’s competition.
Here are some other figures to consider in the wake of Thursday’s various first-round upsets:
• A whopping 70.34 percent of bracket participants saw their winner bow out in the opening round. That subset includes 40.66 percent that picked Tiger Woods to win, 10.51 percent whose ‘sleeper’ pick of Charl Schwartzel is now eliminated and 7.36 percent whose choice of overall No. 1 seed Rory McIlroy was ill-fated.
• If you picked both of the top two seeds to lose their opening matches, perhaps you should invest in some lottery tickets this weekend. Only 0.37 percent of fantasy participants picked both first-round shockers in a single bracket; 3.6 percent of users pegged Charles Howell III over Woods while only 2.76 percent correctly predicted Shane Lowry to oust McIlroy.
• With 32 players still alive, last year’s Ryder Cup hero is now the most popular pick remaining to win it all. Ian Poulter was chosen as the ultimate winner in 6.6 percent of brackets, while fellow Englishmen Luke Donald and Justin Rose were picked to win in 4.56 percent and 3.72 percent of brackets, respectively. The most popular American still standing is Matt Kuchar, who was tabbed to win it all in 1.94 percent of entries.
• If your Final Four remains intact, consider yourself fortunate. Only 1.5 percent of players still have all four projected semifinalists alive, while 24.31 percent of participants have only one semifinalist left after Thursday’s carnage.
• Rory and Tiger were not the only surprising first-round exits Thursday. Only 3.65 percent of participants expected Marcus Fraser to upset Keegan Bradley, while just 3.88 percent picked Rafael Cabrera-Bello to knock out Lee Westwood. Russell Henley and Alexander Noren were expected to advance to the second round in just 5.65 percent and 6.61 percent of brackets, respectively.