It’s astounding to think that a player can sit at 8-under par after three and a half rounds, and nine holes later they’re at 15-under with a trophy on the way. Kevin Streelman earned his second PGA Tour victory by dialing in his irons and sinking putts when it mattered most at last week’s Travelers Championship.

Since there are no pressing storylines for this week’s Quicken Loans National, let’s break down Streelman’s efficiency in … Oh, you want to talk about Tiger? Yeah, I guess that’s happening this week. Fine, let’s dish. After 87 days off from back surgery, Tiger Woods returns to competition not-so-ironically at his foundation’s tournament at Congressional Country Club just north of the nation’s capital.

Woods brings star power to the Blue Course, which is lacking a bit from the rest of the field. A par-71 at the long length of 7,569 yards, it plays hard but Congressional will yield birdies, but only if the driver can puncture the longer holes. That said, you can’t win a tournament without hitting greens in regulation or making putts, so someone longer off the tee who can also do the latter will have success. Let’s take a look now at those that might be best suited for the challenge, including the aforementioned Woods. It’s Risk, Reward, Ruin.

RISK

Ten tournaments is all that remains before the close of the season. It feels like more, so it’s important to note what the remaining PGA Tour stops are. Including this week, there are three tournaments before the British Open, then there are two tournaments before the PGA Championship. Following that is the final Tour venue, the Wyndham Championship, before four weeks of FedEx Cup playoffs. Starts are still at a premium and Yahoo leagues are just opening up the summer segment. This is a reminder to be wise, since at this point many players starts will have been used up and you’d hate to be the guy at the Tour Championship using the bottom part of the final 30. Below are some riskier selections that likely have several available starts and may be smart additions to your lineup this week.

Robert Garrigus

There are two really good results from Garrigus in his last three trips to Congressional. He tied for fourth at the U.S. Open and tied for fourth at the 2012 AT&T National, but a T64 last year leaves something to be desired, plus he missed the cut at the St. Jude Classic, his last tournament. Still, with two top-5s on the year and the ability to post two low rounds, he’s a nice addition to a Yahoo B lineup. In particular, his only real struggle has been hitting fairways, but Garrigus’ distance off the tee sets him up well to score low on the par-5s.

Bo Van Pelt

A true risk this week, BVP has missed eight cuts in 19 tournaments thus far this season. The good news is Van Pelt has made five in a row. The bad is that he’s still a little inconsistent. We know he can post low rounds, but he’s been giving up strokes in the other rounds. He opened with 69-68 at the Travelers, but BVP finished with 73-70, good for a T67. That inconsistency was evidenced with an MC last year where he shot 79-70. But he’s also capable of the solo second he put up in ’12, in which he shot 67-73-67-71. He also posted a T14 at the ’11 U.S. Open (76-67-68-71), again jumping around on the scoreboard. So if he can avoid the big number, or you can avoid it in daily leagues, Van Pelt isn’t a bad sleeper.

Brendon Todd

Todd should be in most Yahoo C lineups this week following his strong run of play even since his first Tour victory at the Byron Nelson. He put up a T5 at Colonial, a T8 at the Memorial and navigated Pinehurst No. 2 for a T17. Currently, he’s a shoe-in for the Ryder Cup and continuing his fine golfing won’t be a problem of focus. Todd finished T13 last year and 72nd the year before in his debut. The former Georgia star is seventh in strokes gained putting this year and is measuring well in all the areas except driving distance. That’s not much of a deterrent.

Charley Hoffman

I like Hoffman again this week coming off a Travelers tournament where he posted three rounds in the 60s to snag a T26. Ever a scorer, Hoffman has four top-10s this year and isn’t prone to big rounds. He posted a T28 last year, a T22 in 2012, a T42 at the U.S. Open of ’11, and a T19 in ’07. Ranking seventh in greens in regulation and 43rd in Strokes Gained-Putting, plus 23rd in driving distance, Hoffman’s fourth-ranked birdie average should factor in this week and that’s good news in Yahoo C. You can also feel safe since he has just one missed cut on the year and that was way back in February.

Brian Harman

With a 4-under final day in 2012, Harman earned himself a T11 at the AT&T National. He’s enjoying a strong third season on Tour, already with five top-10s, including a T6 in Memphis. Three rounds in the 60s netted him a T42 last week. Harman missed the cut last year in a similar setup to the previous year, meaning it just comes down to execution. So far, he’s been confident and nailing putts. No reason to think it won’t continue, but the sample size for him is still small.

Reward

In a field light on elite talent, there’s a handful of names that you can’t go wrong with. Fortunately, several should have starts available due to injuries that kept them out for several weeks this year. Now back in form, unlike Tiger, it’s time to jump on their bandwagon to get you to Hoylake in good condition. Here’s the best of the best this week and one or two should be mixed in on daily leagues. As another reminder, I always ask myself who is the most likely winner, and I don’t leave them out of my lineup unless I’m completely handcuffed. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, but I’d rather not fall behind because of bonus points I could have collected just by benching for three days and watching the leaderboard. Here’s my top rewards for this week.

Brandt Snedeker

Please don’t forget how good Snedeker is. There were several points last year where you’d have selected him week after week and for good reason. He tied for eighth at Congressional in that stretch and he has two other top-10s on the Blue Course, plus he posted a T11 at the ’11 U.S. Open. Now healthy again, Snedeker is warming up just in time for the stretch run. A T9 at this year’s U.S. Open preceded last week’s T11. I’d say he’s trending up and he’ll be my pick to win this week. His only issue this year has been on approach shots, but that wasn’t a problem last week in ranking 25th in GIR and sealing the deal by making 18 birdies.

Jason Day

Day is recovered from a thumb injury incurred during his Accenture Match Play win in February, and has been steadily displaying his quality the last four tournaments. Best of all, the Aussie tied for fourth at Pinehurst, then followed with a T18 last week, which included a final-round 65. Remember how good Day is at the U.S. Open? 2011 at Congressional was no different, resulting in one of his two runner-ups. He’s also finished T8 and T21 at the AT&T National the last two years and this course won’t contain him as he bombs away on the Tour’s second longest course.

Jordan Spieth

Spieth was halfway to a win last year but ultimately finished sixth. Is there any course he doesn’t like? It’s hard to find one at this point as he’s racked up six top-10s this year. Honestly, he’s way overdue for another win given how good he is. Ideally, his statistical profile would look a lot better, but he knows how to read greens, which sounds a lot like someone playing this week who recently had back surgery. I’m not sure how you leave him out of your lineup other than he should have approximately four starts left this year and you’ve got to use him in two weeks when he defends his John Deere Classic title.

Gary Woodland

With nine top-25s to his credit, Woodland has yet to miss a cut this season, which can never be discounted. His biggest struggle is with the putter, but his full swing is looking great after the swing changes he made in 2012. So throw out that bad year (73rd, 72-74-75-80) and look at the ’11 U.S. Open when he finished T23 and the ’13 AT&T National when he ended T16. That’s a good resume for a guy who should find his length off the tee a big advantage this week. Woodland has the capability to go low and is a nice pick in Yahoo A.

Webb Simpson

While Pinehurst did a number on him, Simpson still began to show form at the St. Jude Classic with a T3. It was really encouraging to see him put up three rounds in the 60s in Memphis considering he hadn’t done so since a top-10 in Phoenix in February. Simpson tied for 14th at the ’11 U.S. Open in his only Congressional appearance. The best thing that can be said about the former Wake Forest star is he’s now hitting greens in regulation, which sets up his already stellar putting stroke and birdies.

Ruin

The field is smaller than your normal Tour event and you should see a good bit of shifting on the leaderboard over several days. Given that you may be reaching deeper into the field for a few different selections, whether that’s Yahoo or Golf Channel lineups, it’s important to know exactly who won’t score you anything at all. That’s why I cover the low-hanging fruit, which may look good on the outside but is rotten on the core. That sentence also doubles for D.C.’s many politicians, but I digress. Here’s your Ruin picks.

Tiger Woods

This is a case where the buyer needs to be aware of what he’s purchasing. By selecting Woods, yes you are picking a two-time winner at Congressional, but you’re also owning a golfer who will be working on fine tuning his game in advance of the British Open. A top-25 isn’t out of the question, but a low round likely is. He could play the par-5s well and still fall back of the leaders. That said, I can see him appearing in many Yahoo A lineups and you can’t fault it. But why waste a Woods’ start with so many upcoming tournaments where you could plug him in. Let him work off the rust and burn him down the road.

Camilo Villegas

After a stretch of four missed cuts in a row, Villegas’ last three tournaments have been a T37, T11 and T67. As always, he has the capability to shoot a low round, and, as always, he rarely strings together multiple rounds in the 60s. You don’t necessarily have to do that to play well at Congressional, where Villegas posted a T16 last year without shooting in the 60s. But the Colombian is scary because he’ll shoot 65, then 75 and MC. In ’12, he missed the cut with rounds of 78-75, and he missed the ’11 Open cut by tossing out rounds of 77-72. In the world of fantasy golf, especially daily leagues, sporadic equals danger.

Hunter Mahan

I wrote off his missed cut at the U.S. Open to a mistake, but it’s hard to ignore the MC he had in Cromwell in light of all his past success there. That makes this week somewhat uneasy in using Mahan since he missed the cut at Congressional last year. He did have a T8 in ’12, but also missed the cut at the ’11 U.S. Open. Mahan finished T12 in ’08, shooting 69-72-64-68, and T8 in ’07, shooting 70-74-70-65. But each of those extremely good results was preceded by a run of quality play, including wins and a runner-up at the Travelers. Judging his current results, it may be accurate to say he won’t enter with the same confidence. And that makes me wary.

Chad Campbell

Campbell has been doing moderately well this season, and is of very similar discussion to Bo Van Pelt. He’ll post a below-par round and then post something above it and give strokes back. Last week’s T7 was a good sign in the right direction with three rounds in the 60s, including an opening 64. Campbell finished T16 a year ago, ending at 2-under. He also had rounds of 75-79 in ’12 and 76-71 in ’11, 72-74 in ’07 in missing the cut all three years, but did have a T13 in the ’05 Booz Allen Classic. That was a long time ago. Campbell is second on Tour in hitting GIR, but his Strokes Gained-Putting is near last. If he finds the line and gets it rolling, good, but that’s not the tale for this golfer.

Brian Gay

Gay enters Congressional with only one top-10 this year and two top-20s, while on the heels of three missed cuts in six events and results no better than T57 when he got through to the weekend. He missed the cut at the ’12 AT&T National, finished T63 at the ’11 U.S. Open, and MC’d in ’08, ’05 and ’04. With limited success either this season or in season’s past, there’s better options available, including Tiger at less than 100 percent.

If you’d like to further discuss fantasy selections for the Quicken Loans National, you can comment below or find me on Twitter @bricmiller. Best of luck on your week and thanks for reading!

This week’s picks

Yahoo!

Group A: B. Snedeker (S), G. Woodland

Group B: J. Day (S), J. Spieth (S), W. Simpson, R. Garrigus

Group C: C. Hoffman (S), B. Todd

(Last week: 134 points; Spring segment: 1,733; Spring rank: 2,620; Season points: 3,766; Full Season rank: 1,109 – 98th percentile)

PGATour.com

B. Snedeker, J. Day, R. Garrigus, B. Todd

(Last week: 147 points; Season: 6,056; Rank: 4,042)

Golf Channel

Quicken Loans National  

Group 1: J. Day

Group 2: B. Snedeker

Group 3: R. Garrigus

Group 4: R.H. Lee

(Last week: $106,522/$794,983; Season: $11,882,795; Mulligan: $78,287; Rank: 8,223 of 40,092)