First Live Major

This week sees the first major since we went live on Golf Predictor, namely the US Open. One Tiger Woods Esquire is back in action and I wouldn't be giving anything away by saying he again tops the Golf Predictor rankings, albeit with a lower probability due to his lay-off. Since he missed the cut at the last major after he came back after a long break (understandable as his father and mentor, Earl, had died) and the course is an absolute brute, it might be wise to look elsewhere for a likely winner this time.

Speaking of the course, it has been lengthened to a mammoth 7643 yards and the par reduced from 72 to 71 since the Buick Invitational in January. This makes it almost exactly 500 yards longer than the average par 71 in our database, so scoring should be modest, even if the course set up is not as penal as previous US Opens. The course information in our database will retain the original information as the Buick is played every year. The reduced par will, of course, be factored into the scoring average calculations.

While the US Open will have the cream of golf strutting their stuff in California, the opposite will be true on the European Tour in the St. Omer Open in France. With all other non US Open qualifying top golfers putting the feet up for the week, the highest ranked player competing is a mighty 222 in the world. This makes predicting the outcome a bit of a crap shoot, so it will be interesting how that pans out.