2013 - Week 9 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the Tshwane Open (European PGA Tour) and the Honda Classic (US PGA Tour), are now available on Golf Predictor. The latest European PGA Tour event to be held in South Africa is a new tournament and will be held on Ernie Els' Copperleaf course. It's not every week that the golf course has been designed by an active player. However, the field are not disadvantaged as the Big Easy is playing in Florida, where Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods will be hoping to put on a better show than they did last week.

2013 - Week 8 Winner

Matt Kuchar (ranked 11th by Golf Predictor) won the WGC - Accenture Match Play Championship on the European/US PGA Tour. In a tournament of many shocks, the 34 year old American beat his compatriot and defending champion Hunter Mahan 2&1 in the final. Jason Day defeated match play specialist Ian Poulter 1 up in the third place play-off. Five of the top seven ranked golfers (including Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods) went out in the first round, much to the US TV network's chagrin! There were no other events on the two major tours this week.

Historical Round Scores Table Added to Course Page

New Past Scoring Records table for Augusta National

Similar to the recent enhancement to the Tournament Page, a  new 'Past Scoring Records' table has been added to the Course page on Golf Predictor. Whereas the functionality added to the Tournament page shows the stats for an event that may have been held on more that one course, these new stats show the same information for a course, which may have hosted more than one specific tournament.

As shown in the screenshot above for Augusta National, this new table shows the best and worst rounds in all European/US PGA Tour events (i.e The Masters!) on the course since 2003. As before, you can also hover over a round score to see who shot that score, when they did it and the tournament they did it in. This is also shown above for the highest first round score (and highest round score overall) on Augusta National since 2003. As can be seen above, it was a good idea that the green blazers rethought their rule about past champions!

This new enhancement is only available for courses that have hosted at least one stroke play event and makes the course page even more useful. However, this new functionality is a premium feature and thus only available to subscribed members. So, sign up today and continue to get the most out of Golf Predictor, the premier US and European PGA Tour statistics site.

Currency Conversions Removed From GP Subscribe Page

The dynamic currency converters have had to be removed from the Subscribe page on Golf Predictor. This was because of a critical error with the third party web service that handled the actual currency conversions. This prevented the Subscribe page from being displayed and resulted in the Golf Predictor error page popping up instead.

This web service must have failed in the very near past so unfortunately I have had to remove it from the Subscribe page. Although it was very useful for those members who use the currencies displayed, it is obviously much more useful to to be paid! I will perhaps try to find a more reliable source of real-time conversions or reinstate the existing one if I am satisfied the problem has been addressed.

2013 - Week 8 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions/statistics for this week, the WGC - Accenture Match Play Championship (European/US PGA Tour) are now available on Golf Predictor. Although Golf Predictor is designed primarily for stroke play events, like previous seasons, the Accenture Match Play Championship has been put through the prediction engine. Since the Mayakoba Golf Classic* has been moved to be at the start of the new US PGA Tour season starting in October, there are no other tournaments on this week.


*It has also been re-branded as the OHL Classic at Mayakoba

2013 - Week 7 Winners

Darren Fichardt (ranked 8th by Golf Predictor) won the Africa Open on the European PGA Tour. The 37 year old South African won his fourth tour title by two shots, despite stumbling over his last five holes. Our top ranked player, Thomas Aiken, finished in tied 12th and we had eight of the top seventeen plus ties (8/19).

John Merrick (ranked 83rd by Golf Predictor) won the Northern Trust Open title on the US PGA Tour. The 30 year old American finally won his first tour title at the 169th attempt in a play-off with Charlie Beljan. Our top ranked player, Luke Donald, finished in tied 16th after a poor final found on his season début. Overall, we had ten of the top sixteen plus ties (10/20).

Historical Round Scores Table Added to Tournament Page

New Past Scoring Records table for 2013 Northern Trust Open

A new 'Past Scoring Records' table has been added to the tournament page on Golf Predictor. As shown in the screenshot above (for this week's Northern Trust Open), this new table shows the best and worst rounds in all previous editions of the event since 2003. Similar to the recent enhancement for the Round Scores table, you can also hover over a round score to see who shot that score and when they did it. This is also shown above for the highest first round score (and highest round score overall) in the history of  the Northern Trust Open since 2003. As can be seen above, two lesser lights share that dubious honour, having shot that score (88) when the tournament had a different sponsor. 

This new enhancement is only available for stroke play events and makes the Tournament page even more useful for this type of tournament. However, this new functionality is a premium feature and thus only available to subscribed members. So, sign up today and continue to get the most out of Golf Predictor, the premier US and European PGA Tour statistics site.

2013 - Week 7 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the Africa Open (European PGA Tour) and the Northern Trust Open (US PGA Tour) are now available on Golf Predictor. It's the last week of the California swing this week on the US PGA Tour and it marks the season débuts of Luke Donald and Adam Scott, the last of the world's top ten to get their campaigns under way. Meanwhile the European PGA Tour are halfway through its South African swing and it has a particularly weak field this week. With only one of the top 100 golfers in the world competing (number 97 Fredrik Andersson Hed), it promises to be a bit of a lottery!

2013 - Week 6 Winners

Richard Sterne (ranked 6th by Golf Predictor) won the Joburg Open on the European PGA Tour. The 31 year old South African continued his great start to the season by easily winning his sixth tour title. After finishing second on his season début last week, Sterne went one better this week to secure the Joburg Open for the second time. Our top ranked player, Charl Schwartzel finished second on his season début and we had nine of the top sixteen plus ties (9/18).

Brandt Snedeker (ranked 1st by Golf Predictor) won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on the US PGA Tour. Like Sterne, the likeable American capped his great early season form with an impressive final day performance to seal the title. Many of the bigger names didn't perform, but including the winner, we had seven of the top sixteen plus ties (7/21).

1000th Blog Post!

This post marks another user interaction milestone in recent weeks for Golf Predictor. After just over four years and nine months, this is the 1000th blog post that I have written. That works out at an average of about 210 per year or roughly one post every 1.7 days since April 2008 (but who's counting?!).

This goes with the recently passed 1000 followers and 10,000 tweet milestones on Twitter. It was just a coincidence that all three milestones happened in a short period of time. I wonder whether I will get to 20,000 tweets or 2000 blog posts first!

2013/14 US PGA Tour - 2013 Tournaments Added to Golf Predictor

The 2013/14 US PGA Tour season events to be held in 2013 have been added to Golf Predictor. Further to the earlier post on the new GP season, these events are part of the 2013 GP season for stats purposes.

That means that almost all the tournaments to be held in 2013 are now in the system. However, there are a couple of unconfirmed spots remaining in the European schedule. When this situation changes, I will update Golf Predictor to complete the 2013 line up.

Slight Change to GP Member Section Menus

There has been a small change to the menus in the Golf Predictor member section. The "Form Golfers" option that was previously in the "Predictions" menu has been moved to its more logical home in the "Form" menu. This corrects a minor oversight with the major site upgrade of several months ago.

2013 - Week 6 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the Joburg Open (European PGA Tour) and the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (US PGA Tour) are now available on Golf Predictor. The South African event has its usual large local contingent of unknowns among its huge field in general! Meanwhile, the California swing continues on the US PGA Tour with the annual pro-am with the stars at scenic Pebble Beach and two other nearby courses. Coincidently, both events this week are held on multiple courses of differing pars - a scenario which Golf Predictor doesn't like!

2013 - Week 5 Winners

Stephen Gallacher (ranked 19th by Golf Predictor) won the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on the European PGA Tour. The 38 year old Scot won his second tour title over eight years after his first by holding off Richard Sterne on the final day. However,  I'm sure he's hoping he doesn't have to play in another 210 events before his next victory! Our top ranked player, Lee Westwood, finished tied 5th on his season début and we had nine of the top twenty five (9/25) in total.

Phil Mickelson (ranked 5th by Golf Predictor) won the Waste Management Phoenix Open on the US PGA Tour. The popular American started off missing an historic 59 by a whisker and completed a commanding wire to wire victory, defeating Brandt Snedeker by four shots. Snedeker was our top ranked player and we had nine of the top sixteen plus ties (9/23).