2013 - Week 1 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the Hyundai Tournament of Champions (US PGA Tour) are now available on Golf Predictor. It's the first week of the new GP season and it's time for everyone to shake off the cobwebs again! Although it's starting a bit earlier than usual, it didn't ruin Christmas for many as it's the customary restricted field event in Hawaii!

Golf Predictor on Holidays!

Now that the last event this GP season (calendar year) is over and the season statistics have been generated, it's time for a well deserved break from Twitter, the blog and from the main site itself! Unless something extraordinary happens in the golf world over the holiday period, that is! The site will, of course, be back in time for the first events of the 2013 GP Season.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, especially subscribers!! Thanks to everyone for using the site in 2012 and looking forward to a great 2013 on Golf Predictor.

2012 GP Season Stats Available

Following the conclusion of the last event of 2012 on both major tours in South Africa yesterday, the statistics for the 2012 GP season are now available on Golf Predictor (Other Stats menu, Season Stats options). The numbers have been crunched for all 529 golfers who played at least five tournaments (excluding non-finishes) on the European/US PGA Tour during the course of the GP season (2012 calendar year).

Somewhat surprisingly (given the golfer of the year), Tiger Woods is back on top of the pile when average finishing position for the season is used as the primary ranking statistic. Woods played 21 events in 2012 and is the only golfer with an average finish of less than 20. The aforementioned golfer of the year, Rory McIlroy, had a somewhat inconsistent (if successful!) season, with an equal number of wins and missed cuts (5). The latter five tournament results contributed to him not even making the top twenty of the season ranking on Golf Predictor! On the plus side, he did have the most wins and top tens (16) of any golfer in 2012. He also had the highest percentage in these stats (winning 20.8% of tournaments played and finishing in the top ten in 66.7% of them).

Other somewhat interesting statistics include Ian Poulter (23 events) being the only golfer with a full schedule (at least 20 events) who didn't miss a single cut. On the other extreme, Sung-Hoon Kang (30 events) had the unenviable record of most cuts missed (22). See these and many more interesting 2012 GP season statistics on Golf Predictor!


Note: The course for the Nelson Mandela Championship (2012 GP Season, 2013 European Tour) was shortened to a par 65 due to excessive rain. This reduced par slightly skews the round averages and other statistics for all golfers who played that event. A new "Note" field has been added to the golfer Season Statistics page and displays a message to this effect for all the golfers affected.

2012 - Week 48 Winner

Charl Schwartzel (ranked 2nd by Golf Predictor) won the Alfred Dunhill Championship on the European PGA Tour. The 28 year old South African continued his recent hot streak by winning the last event of 2012 by a massive twelve shots. He really must be wishing a major was coming up instead of the Christmas break! Our top ranked player, Louis Oosthuizen, withdrew, but we still had nine of the top eighteen plus ties (9/19) in total. 


Note:

1. Further to the earlier post on the new GP season, the first two events of the 2013 European Tour season have been added to the 2012 GP Season for stats purposes.

2012 - Week 48 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the Alfred Dunhill Championship (European PGA Tour), are now available on Golf Predictor. Although it's just the second event of the new 2013 season, it's the last event of the 2012 GP season (calendar year) and I'm sure everyone (including me!) is looking forward to a few weeks off over the Christmas period. The field this week is headlined by a couple of local big guns, but all the other big names have called it quits for the year!

Further to the earlier post on the new GP season, the first two events of the 2013 European Tour season have been added to the 2012 GP Season for stats purposes.

2012 - Week 47 Winner

Scott Jamieson (ranked 21st by Golf Predictor) won The Nelson Mandela Championship pres. by ISPS Handa on the European PGA Tour. The 29 year old Scot won his maiden tour title in a three man play-off at the rain shortened event. Despite being six shots behind after day one of the 36 hole event, Jamieson finished in style with a 57 (-8) on the shortened par 65 course. That was good enough to tie Steve Webster and Eduardo De La Riva on -7 for the championship. After an anxious wait to see if any late starter would overhaul them, Jamieson prevailed on the second extra hole. Our top ranked player, Branden Grace, finished in tied 39th and the weather turned the event into a sprint lottery! We only managed eight of the top twenty one plus ties (8/31), but hope to improve this week when (hopefully) normal 72 hole tournament play will resume!


Notes:

1. Further to the earlier post on the new GP season, the first two events of the 2013 European Tour season have been added to the 2012 GP Season for stats purposes. 
2. Apologies for the late posting - an oversight on my part!

2012 - Week 47 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, The Nelson Mandela Championship pres. by ISPS Handa (European PGA Tour) are now available on Golf Predictor. Although the 2012 season ended just over a week ago, it's straight back into action again on the European Tour with the start of the 2013 season.

Further to the earlier post on the new GP season, the first two events of the 2013 European Tour season have been added to the 2012 GP Season for stats purposes. Local favourite Branden Grace will be hoping for yet another win this year to round off his year in style.

2013 Tournaments Added to Golf Predictor

The 2013 European and US PGA Tour season events have been added to Golf Predictor. Further to the earlier post on the new GP season, the first two events on the 2013 European PGA Tour schedule have been added to the end of the 2012 GP season for stats purposes.

Both these South African events are held in the 2012 calendar year so to be consistent with the changes needed for the 2013/14 US PGA Tour, they have been added to the 2012 GP season.

Average World Ranking of 2012 European/US PGA Tour winners

Reading directly off the Tournament Winners page on  Golf Predictor, the average world ranking of the winners on the 2012 US PGA Tour was 69.81. The corresponding figure for the 2012 European Tour was almost 40% higher at 96.96. That is probably a fair enough reflection of the relative strengths of the fields on both tours.

Interestingly, both averages are significantly lower than the 2011 values, which were 113.23 in the US and 141.02 in Europe. That obviously implies that the higher ranked players (especially Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods!) performed better in the season just ended.
 

New 'Golf Predictor Season' Concept Implemented Early

Further to this post of a few months back, the concept of a GP Season has been added to Golf Predictor. To recap, this GP season has had to be introduced to the site due to the completely new schedule for the US PGA Tour from next year. The 2013 season in the US will be a short one, from January to September 2013, culminating in The Tour Championship at East Lake. From then on, there will be a full season once again, but starting in October (with what was previously The Fall Series) and running through to the following September (once again to The Tour Championship).

While it may make sense for the US PGA Tour to finish the season with The Tour Championship, it raises all sorts of problems for Golf Predictor! As noted in the previous post on this issue, it raises the possibility of a player playing one week on the 2014 (it may be called 2013/14) US Tour and the next on the 2013 European Tour (or vice versa) as there will be a significant three month overlap. There are other anomalies also, such as the WGC - HSBC Champions event in China now being in two different seasons - the 2013 European Tour and the 2014 US Tour!

There is really no other way to deal with these issues on Golf Predictor other than to use a calendar year to arrange tournaments chronologically. This is exactly what the GP Season will do from this year (2012) on. Since the European Tour has further complicated things by once again starting their new season (2013) in the preceding calendar year (they had finally just reverted to a calendar year for the 2012 season!), I have been forced to introduce the GP Season sooner than anticipated. This is so that the two opening events of the 2013 European Tour season that are being held in December 2012 can be incorporated into the 2012 GP Season. Therefore, from 2012 on, the GP Season will run from January to December and include all tournaments held on both major tours in that calendar year. There has been a new field added to the system that will show the actual season the tournament is in, but from a statistics perspective, everything will be based on the calendar year i.e. the GP Season. For all years prior to 2012 on the system, the GP Season will still refer to the actual season the tournament was held in.

As well as solving the issues outlined above, using the calendar year has other advantages, including:

1. Almost all golfers take their longest break (usually in the region of  six weeks) around Christmas and will continue to do so. Therefore, it makes more sense to have season form starting in January and ending in December.
2. As a corollary to the above point, a player could finish his 2013 US PGA Tour season with The Tour Championship in September and play the following week on the 2013 European Tour. With the GP Season, his form since January will still be counted and thus give a more accurate picture of his chances.
3. The Season Stats generated for each golfer after each season will show the stats for the calendar year (i.e. between long Christmas breaks) from 2012 on. This is more or less how it has always has been, with the exception of the European seasons which started in December of the previous calendar year. However, if one was to follow the new season schedules, it would be impossible to generate meaningful stats with the US Tour season overlapping two European Tour seasons (e.g. The 2014 US season will overlap the latter three months of the 2013 European season and the first nine months of the 2014 European season.
4. Using the GP Season will allow for more relevant historical results to be factored in for the US events that are at the beginning of the 2014 season (held in October/November 2013). Since these events are not in the shortened 2013 US PGA Tour season, a year (2008) would be left out by the Golf Predictor prediction algorithm if they were designated as 2014 season events (the blank 2013 would be counted instead).

This solution allows the Golf Predictor to continue to generate accurate statistics, despite this major impending scheduling change on the US PGA Tour. The relevant pages in the member section have been updated to refer to the GP Season and link to this explanatory blog post. So, sign up today and continue to get the most out of Golf Predictor, the premier US and European PGA Tour statistics site.

Note: you may have to refresh pages to see the changes.