Fantasy Lookahead: Tiger Woods on fantasy radar after registering for U.S. Open

Tiger Woods took the first step in participating in the 2016 U.S. Open on Monday when he officially registered for his first tournament since a 10th-place finish at the Wyndham Championship in August 2015.

That finish was a highlight of an abbreviated season in which he made just seven of 12 cuts, played just 37 rounds and had the lone top-10 finish. The five missed cuts were the most Woods missed in a single season in his career. He's taken the time since then to recover from a myriad of injuries, and while he's not guaranteed to play in the June event, the option is now there.

He missed last year's tournament cut at the well-publicized difficult Chambers Bay course. He didn't participate in 2014, with his last made cut a 32nd-place finish in 2013 at Merion Golf Club.

Woods has plummeted to 499th in the Official World Golf Rankings, having accumulated a mere 12.47 points in his past 16 events. He hasn't participated in enough events in a single season to qualify for any of PGATour.com's official stats since 2013.

He finished that season ranking third in Birdie Average, second in Scoring Average and second in Strokes Gained: Total, as the highlights. He was also the tour's money leader that season, so clearly a lot has changed.

Woods will be difficult to trust in any fantasy format if he does make his return in mid-June. He draws people to the sport for the sole reason of watching and following him, and he could even draw newcomers to daily fantasy golf. With a lofty projected ownership his price will also be staggeringly high for someone who has been absent from the sport for nearly a year.

Someone by a different name under the same circumstances would make for an excellent contrarian play, as their DFS salary would be near the basement. That won't be the case the case with Woods, and his high ownership will take away from what upside he may possess.

Woods will be priced similarly to top-tier players Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson and Rickie Fowler. Each of those players has at least two wins on tour in the past two seasons. Day, Spieth and Fowler each had one career victory prior to Woods' most recent win.

Not only is Woods a different player than what he was, but the tour is different, as well. Woods' schedule for 2016 is still up in the air and will likely be announced on a week-to-week basis. He's unlikely to play in anything other than majors and the most marquee events, but DFS players will need to wait for a smaller event before investing in the former No. 1.