HSBC Champions Event Gets Promotion!

In a great boost for golf in Asia, the HSBC Champions event in China has been upgraded to WGC status. This is a landmark decision for world golf and it creates the most prestigious event on the Asian continent. Formerly the opening event on the European PGA Tour, this new status will mean more prize money and more stringent qualification criteria. Although already attracting big names, the organisers can expect a truly world class field for the revamped tournament in Shanghai this November.

The reaction has been universally good from players and administrators alike, with Tiger Woods and defending champion Sergio Garcia among those welcoming the news.

2009 - Week 22 Predictions Online

We have published the predictions for week 22, the Open de Espana (European PGA Tour) and the Quail Hollow Championship (US PGA Tour). The Quail Hollow (formerly the Wachovia) Championship boasts a strong field this year, including the world number one and previous winner Tiger Woods. In all, ten of the top fourteen ranked players in the world are competing in North Carolina this week. Hopefully Phil Mickelson and Tiger will serve up another treat! That leaves relatively slim pickings for the Open de Espana in Girona, with even Sergio 'Sourpuss' Garcia shunning his national Open! However, the return to action of John Daly should provide some excitement in Spain!

The only pre-2004 champion in the Quail Hollow Championship (Golf Predictor uses the results from the previous 5 years) is David Toms, who won the inaugural event in 2003. The corresponding list for the Open de Espana is Kenneth Ferrie (2003), Jarmo Sandelin (1999), Thomas Bjorn (1998) and Colin Montgomerie (1994).

2009 - Week 21 Winners

Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand (ranked 12th by Golf Predictor) proved himself to be the most durable in difficult conditions by winning the Ballantine's Championship in Korea. Jaidee secured his fourth European PGA title with a brilliant birdie on the first hole of a three way play-off with Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (ranked 5th) and Sung-Hoon Kang (ranked 132nd). That's three runner up finishes in a row now for Fdez-Castano, who seems to be turning into the new Padraig Harrington! In a tournament with high scoring (including a third round average of 78.55), we had two of the top four plus ties. Our top pick Henrik Stenson finished in a tie for 52nd.

On the US PGA Tour, Jerry Kelly (ranked 34th) finally secured another title at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Despite leading by 3 strokes overnight, a nervy Kelly soon found himself trailing Charles Howell III by the same margin. However, he battled back admirably to win for the first time in seven years. Our top pick Kenny Perry finished down in tied 59th place and we had Steve Stricker and Rory Sabbatini in the top ten.

2009 Ballantine's Championship - Tournament History & World Ranking Issues

The tournament history for the Ballantine's Championship was missing from Golf Predictor due to a misspelling of the 2009 tournament name. This has now been corrected and the information is now available. For this tournament, the tournament and course history are identical as the same course has been used to host the event since its inception onto the European PGA Tour last year. In addition, the world rankings for a few problematic golfer names* were not taken into account. This included the in-form Gonzalo Fdez-Castano who was down the rankings as a result (having been assigned the default world ranking of 1050). This has also been corrected.

Note that you may have to reload/refresh the prediction pages to see the tournament history information and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.


*Some golfers (particularly Korean and Chinese golfers!) are known by multiple variations of their names, even on the same official source.

Another New 'Field Nationalities' Chart added to Golf Predictor

Further to our last post, We are pleased to announce the addition of another 'Field Nationalities' chart to Golf Predictor. This latest chart enables you to see the breakdown of the nationality of the golfers for all completed tournaments on the European and US PGA Tours since 2003. This new chart is available on the "Results By Year" page (or any Tournament page) on the "View Options" menu (member section). The chart introduced in the previous post is only available for events that we have predicted (since around May 2008) and may include golfers who did not tee it up (alternates or late withdrawals). We have also added sortable round scores to the results table on the "Results By Year" page and changed the hover text to the total number of strokes taken by the golfer.

The screenshot above shows the nationality breakdown chart for all golfers who actually competed in the 2009 US Masters. Due to the nature of this event (a prestigious major tournament), there were no alternates or late withdrawals, so this chart is identical to the one on the previous post (except for the colour scheme). As usual, hovering over a bar shows more information, as shown above for the US.

This brings the total number of charts on Golf Predictor to 169. This new chart is available to all members, regardless of subscription status. Golf Predictor keeps on improving!

New 'Field Nationalities' Chart added to Golf Predictor

We are glad to announce the addition of a 'Field Nationalities' chart to Golf Predictor. This enables you to see the breakdown of the nationality of the entrants for any tournament that we have predicted. This new chart is available on the "Tourn Predictions" page ("Stats Analysis" menu, Member section).

The screenshot above shows the nationality breakdown chart for the 2009 US Masters. Unsurprisingly, the US makes up most of the entrants for this and all US PGA Tour events. The European PGA Tour usually has much more diversity in its tournaments! Like every other chart, hovering over a bar shows more information, as shown above for the US. Note that this chart includes any alternates for the tournament and may have late withdrawals included.

This brings the total number of charts on Golf Predictor to 168. This new chart is available to all members, regardless of subscription status. Just another way to make Golf Predictor even better!

Note: Similar chart available for all completed tournaments since 2003 on the European and US PGA Tours.

Zurich Classic of New Orleans - Memorable Moments

Just to whet your appetite for this week's Zurich Classic of New Orleans (covered by Golf Predictor), here are some memorable moments from previous years. These moments include several great bunker shots/chip ins and a good comeback from Vijay Singh.

2009 - Week 21 Predictions Updated

We have had to update the predictions for this week's tournaments on Golf Predictor due to the incorrect weighting of previous course history. This has now been corrected and the new ranking lists are now online. Note that you may have to reload/refresh the prediction pages to see the new rankings and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.

2009 - Week 21 Predictions Online

We have published the predictions for week 21, the Ballantine's Championship (European PGA Tour) and the Zurich Classic of New Orleans (US PGA Tour). There was a slight delay this week due to the late availability of some statistics. For the second week in a row, an Irish man is defending a title in the Far East. Graeme McDowell will have a tougher task to retain his title as a good quality field has been assembled in Korea.

The list of pre-2004 champions in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans (Golf Predictor uses the results from the previous 5 years) includes K.J. Choi (2002), David Toms (2001), Carlos Franco (2000 & 1999), Brad Faxon (1997) and Scott McCarron (1996). This is only the second year of the Ballintine's Championship.

2009 - Week 20 Winners

Australian Scott Strange (ranked 17th by Golf Predictor) has won his second European PGA Tour victory at the Volvo China Open. A timely birdie burst on the back nine consigned Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (ranked 1st) to his second runner up finish in a row. In a tournament with high scoring, we had five of the top eleven plus ties.

On the US PGA Tour, Brian Gay (ranked 27th) also secured his second title with a run away victory at the Verizon Heritage. Gay finished in style with a 64 for a ten shot victory as none of the pack did much chasing. The winning score (-20) and winning margin were both records. Whatever big names came down from Augusta had a Masters hangover as almost all failed to perform. Robert Allenby's long cut streak of 32 came to an end, but our top pick Paul Casey rallied with a 66 on Sunday to finish in a tie for 11th place.

Cut Streak Stats/Chart added to Golf Predictor

We are happy to announce that we have added cut streak statistics to Golf Predictor. This enables you to see how many cuts in a row each participating golfer in a tournament has made. A new sortable "CS" column has been added to the "Tourn Predictions" page on the "Stats Analysis" menu (member section). A "Longest Cut Streaks" chart has been added to the same page to show the golfers with the longest cut streaks. The cut streak statistic has also been added to the "Prediction Data" page for each golfer.

This is shown in the screenshot above for last week's US Masters. Clicking on the new chart link would tell you unsurprisingly that Tiger Woods had the longest cut streak of all the competitors. However, he shared top spot with Robert Allenby, who can overtake Woods if he makes the cut this week at the Verizon Heritage. The cut streak information and chart on the "Tourn Predictions" page is available for all tournaments from the 2009 Masters on. However, clicking on the "Prediction Data" page for any golfer for any previous tournament will display the length of his cut streak.

The new chart brings the total number of charts on the site up to 167. This new chart is only available to subscribers so sign up today to get the most out of Golf Predictor, the premier US & European PGA Tour statistics site.

2009 - Week 20 Predictions Online

We have published the predictions for week 20, the Volvo China Open (European PGA Tour) and the Verizon Heritage (US PGA Tour). As usual for the week after a major tournament, both events this week suffer from the hangover with most big names taking a break. This is especially true for the Chinese event for obvious geographical reasons.

The list of pre-2004 champions in the Verizon Heritage (Golf Predictor uses the results from the previous 5 years) includes Davis Love III (2003, 1998, 1992, 1991 & 1987), Justin Leonard (2002), Jose Coceres (2001), Stewart Cink (2000), Glen Day (1999) and Boy Tway (1995). The Volvo China Open has only been sanctioned on the European PGA Tour since the 2005 season. However, previous winners in the field include Lian-wei Zhang (2003), David Gleeson (2002) and Simon Dyson (2000). In light of all of Davis Love's previous victories in the Verizon Heritage, it may be prudent to give him extra consideration this week!

2009 - Week 19 Winner

Angel Cabrera (ranked 44th by Golf Predictor) captured his second major title on an incident packed final day at Augusta National (see video below). El Pato ("The Duck") overcame Kenny Perry (ranked 12) at the second extra hole, after Chad Campbell (ranked 59th) dropped out on the first. The leaders were largely overshadowed by the fireworks from Tiger (ranked 1st) and Phil (ranked 2nd) in front of them, until the big two faltered near the end of their rounds. Perry appeared to seal the deal when he hit a fantastic tee shot to gimmie range on the par 3 16th. However, Cabrera held his nerve to stroke in his birdie put to remain two shots behind with two to play.

It was then Perry's tournament to lose, and unfortunately lose it he did. Having gone without a bogey for 22 holes, Perry bogeyed the last two holes to open the door for Cabrera and Campbell. When the Argentinian found a horrid spot behind a tree on the first play-off hole, it looked all over for him. He managed to salvage par via a lucky ricochet on to the fairway and a great approach. Poor approaches from perfect spots by the other two let Cabrera off the hook and when Perry messed up the second play-off hole, the Argentinian wasn't as generous. Perry showed great sportmanship and dignity in defeat. That must have been tough to take for the 48 year old Kentuckian who was bidding to become the oldest ever major champion.

We had four out of the top twelve in what was the best Masters in years. Major kudos (pun intended!) must go to the green blazers for the great course set up. It facilitated the welcome return of the old Masters magic. Honourable mention to God for the weather too!

2009 Masters Day 3 - Return of the Perry!

Not many players made a significant move on moving day at Augusta National. One player who did was former US Open champion Angel Cabrera, who hit his third consecutive round in the sixties. The big hitting Argentinian joined Kenny Perry at the top of the pile after a solid 69. Joint second round leader Chad Campbell had a poor finish to fall two shots behind the leaders in third place.

Neither Tiger Woods nor Phil Mickelson made inroads into their deficits, both finishing at -4, seven shots off the pace. Interestingly, they will be paired together for the final round, where hopefully sparks will fly! Padraig Harrington took himself out of contention with a disastrous nine on the par 5 second hole. The Irish man finished at -1 and was quite philosophical afterwards about a tournament that seemed destined not to be his. More information on the day's play (including real time coverage) is available on the Golf Predictor Twitter feed (see panel on the right) and you can see highlights here:

2009 Masters Day 2 - The Course Strikes Back!

The weather or the pin placement committee weren't as benevolent on day two of the 2009 Masters. Overall scoring was worse as a result, but that didn't stop Anthony Kim shooting a record 11 birdies in his fantastic 65. Sergio Garcia and Kenny Perry both hit impressive 67s to shoot up the leaderboard. In Perry's case, it moved him all the way to -9 and the top of the pile. First round leader Chad Campbell joined him after adding a 70 to his opening 65. Phil Mickelson also made a move, shooting a fine 68 to move up to -3 for the tournament.

Tiger Woods again finished with a dropped shot for the second day running. He signed for a 72 to stay at -2, but he wasn't a happy camper as can be seen here:




Also on -2 is Padraig Harrington who was very unfortunate in his round of 73. His ball moved 3 feet thanks to a strong gust after he addressed it on the 15th green, incurring a one shot penalty. His short birdie putt thus became a gutsy par effort, which he thankfully sank. To add insult to injury, he horseshoed on 18 to miss out on another birdie. Hopefully that's all his bad luck out of the way now! Fellow Irish man Rory McIlroy endured a nightmare finish to his second round. Sitting pretty at -4 on the 16 tee, he 4 putted the short par 3 and then treble bogeyed the last to plummet down to the cut line. To cap it all, he then came within a whisker of getting disqualified for kicking the sand in the bunker before he managed to extricate his ball from it. This could have ultimately resulted in him signing an incorrect card, but fortunately he was cleared of any misconduct.

Gary Player signed off his 52 years of competing with an 83. The Black Knight deservedly received a fantastic reception on the 18th green and a touching hug from the younger South African competitors who waited there to greet him. More information on the day's play (including real time coverage) is available on the Golf Predictor Twitter feed (see panel on the right) and you can see highlights here:

More Statistics added to 'Golfer' Page on Golf Predictor

Further to the recent enhancements to the same page, we are happy to announce the addition of more statistics to the 'Golfer' page in the member section of Golf Predictor (accessible mainly from the 'View Options/Golfers' menu option). As shown in the screenshot for Paul Casey above, you can now view career statistics (since 2003) for each golfer*.

Similar to some of the statistics available for golfers participating in tournaments (Prediction Data pages), you can now see the number of tournaments played, cuts missed, wins, top ten finishes, best finish, worst finish, average finish and standard deviation for each golfer in the database.

Looking at Tiger Woods' page, it really shows how brilliant he is. To have an average finishing position of 10 across more than 6 years and 106 tournaments is almost unbelievable. Finishing in the top ten of 73% of your tournaments in that time span isn't too shabby either! You can now check the performance of your favourite player on the site. Just another way to make Golf Predictor even better!


*You may to reload/refresh the page in your browser to see these new statistics.

2009 Masters Day 1 - The Magic Returns

After a few years of attritional golf, the first day of the 2009 Masters was a welcome return to exciting action. A perfect day for golf ,coupled with receptive greens and generous pin positions helped a record 38 players beat par. Foremost among them was Chad Campbell, who build on his record breaking five birdie start to reach -9 after 16 holes. With at least a share of the course record in sight, Campbell unfortunately stumbled on the final two holes to fall back to "only" a 65. It was still good enough for the outright lead, by one shot from the blemish free Jim Furyk and Hunter Mahan, who also bogeyed the last.

Elsewhere, Tiger Woods also finished with a dropped shot to keep his record of never breaking 70 on the opening day intact. He's well in contention on -2, as is Padraig Harrington who is one shot better off after a promising 69. Not so good for Paul Casey (72), Phil Mickelson (73) or Sergio Garcia (73), none of whom were happy in their post-round interviews. The round of the day was arguably veteran Larry Mize who turned back the clock with a splendid 67. Many former champions acquitted themselves well, including, thankfully, Gary Player who finished with a respectable 78. Considering that huge hitting Spaniard Alvaro Quiros (Garcia) shot the same score, it was a sterling effort from the diminutive South African legend.

More information on the first day's play (including real time coverage) is available on the Golf Predictor Twitter feed (see panel on the right) and you can see highlights here:

Tournaments Played Charts Added to Golf Predictor

We have added four new charts to Golf Predictor to show which golfers have played the most tournaments in a season. This charts are available from the "Season History" and "Season Stats" pages on the "Stats Analysis" menu in the member section. The chart on the former page shows the golfers who have played the most events in the current season up to the selected event. The three new charts on the "Season Stats" page show the golfers who have played the most events with at least one on the US PGA Tour, the European PGA Tour or any tour in any completed season since 2003.

The screenshot above shows the chart for those golfers who played at least once on the 2007 US PGA Tour season. Of all the players, Daniel Chopra was the busiest with 37 events that year. As usual, hovering over a bar gives more information, as shown above. This brings the total number of charts on the site up to 166. These 4 new charts are only available to subscribers so sign up today to get the most out of Golf Predictor, the premier US & European PGA Tour statistics site.

Legendary Player in His Last Major

As mentioned on the Golf Predictor Twitter feed, legend Gary Player to make his 52nd consecutive and last appearance at Augusta this year. At 73, his age is finally getting the better of him and he is going to stick with the Champions Tour for the next 60 years! Hear the great man himself:

2009 US Masters Opinions

Get Andy North's thoughts on who has a chance to win the Masters this week (all player statistics on Golf Predictor), which also incredibly include Greg Norman as a potential winner:



Bob Harig, also of ESPN, has a better take on things:

2009 - Week 19 Prediction Online

We have published the prediction for week 18, The Masters (European/US PGA Tours). Exciting times as it's the first major of the year, held as usual on the hallowed turf of Augusta National. Will a resurgent Tiger dominate once again as he continues his comeback from injury? Will Padraig Harrington overcome his ropey form and capture the third leg of the Paddy Slam? Will Phil Mickleson put his horrendous week in Houston behind him? Will Paul Casey build on his success there? We'll soon see!

The list of pre-2004 champions in The Masters (Golf Predictor uses the results from the previous 5 years) is long as past champions are invited back for life. That has been curtailed in recent years thanks mainly to the increased length and severity of the course. However, legend Gary Player, probably the fittest septuagenarian on the planet, has racked up even more air miles and is back for another go. Golf Predictor hopes that the Black Knight acquits himself well in what amazingly is his 52nd successive Masters appearance.

2009 - Week 18 Winners

Northern Ireland's Michael Hoey (ranked 42nd by Golf Predictor) held his nerve to take his maiden European PGA Tour victory at the Open de Portugal. After closing with a superb 66 (-5), Hoey saw off Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (ranked 2nd) in a tense play-off at the third extra hole. The poor weather and relatively weak field made it a difficult event to predict. Our top pick, Anders Hansen, missed the cut but we had two of the top five.

The wind also played havoc on the US PGA Tour (see video below) where Paul Casey (ranked 7th by Golf Predictor) won his second title of the season and first in America. Casey also needed a play-off, where he defeated J.B. Holmes (ranked 90th) on the first extra hole. The three hour wait for the play-off did Holmes no favours as he hooked his drive on the tough 18th into the water. Unfortunately, this meant he narrowly missed out on a late berth in the Masters. Our top pick, Phil Mickelson, was blown away in the wind and missed the cut but we also had Geoff Ogilvy in the top six plus ties.

Flags added to Golf Predictor

We have cosmetically enhanced most pages in the member section of Golf Predictor with the addition of flag graphics. These small graphics represent the nationality of each golfer and adds some colour to Golf Predictor! The screenshot above shows how the main prediction page now looks. Hovering over an unfamiliar flag will reveal the 3 letter country code. Golf Predictor uses the IOC country codes which are listed here, should you still be flummoxed!

All 200+ images have been optimised by us for web display, resulting in a massive reduction in file size (of the order of 80-85%). Most of the images are less than half a kilobyte, so unless you're on a really old dial up connection, performance shouldn't suffer when these images are downloaded into your browser cache. Note that some column headers have had to be renamed in order to fit the flag column in the table. The key tables have been updated accordingly on the affected pages.

We have tested the new flag images on FireFox 3.08, IE 8, Opera 9.64, Chrome and Safari 3.1.2 (Windows). As usual, we have had to compromise slightly in some instances for maximum cross browser compatibility. While not affecting functionality, we think these flags add to the visual appeal of the site. We hope that you agree!

Shell Houston Open - Memorable Moments

Just to whet your appetite for this week's Shell Houston Open (covered by Golf Predictor), here are some memorable moments from previous years. Some of these moments are poignant but most show that the event seems to suit golfers from down under!

2009 - Week 18 Predictions Updated

We have had to run the predictions for this week's tournaments again. This was done for 2 reasons:

1. The entry lists had changed for both events, with significant changes to the US PGA Tour event (Shell Houston Open).
2. More importantly, we noticed that in the above tournament, Phil Mickleson's ranking was unreasonably lower than Sergio Garcia's after the initial run. Upon investigation, a minor discrepancy related to last week's fix was discovered in our ranking algorithm.
   

This has now been corrected and the new ranking lists are now online. This should make the Golf Predictor rankings better in the future and we apologise for any inconvenience caused. Note that you may have to reload/refresh the prediction pages to see the new rankings.