'Compare Tee-off Groups' Page Added to Golf Predictor

Portion of new 'Compare Tee-off Groups' page showing the stats for tee-off group 44 for the 2013 HP Byron Nelson Championship

I am happy to announce the addition of the very useful new 'Compare Tee-off Groups' page to Golf Predictor. As can be seen from the screenshot above, this new page is similar to the existing 'Compare Golfers' page and is available from the same menu ('Predictions'). However, while the 'Compare Predictions' page allows you to select up to ten golfers and directly compare their stats, this new page uses the pre-tournament tee-off list to compare the stats for each golfer in the selected tee-off group (normally a three ball) automatically. This page was added as a result of a member suggestion and it makes the task of analysing bookie tee-off group match-ups much easier. Some notes on this new page:

1. The first tournaments covered are the two stroke play events this week in Texas and Madeira. The match play event in Bulgaria is not covered.
2. As the golfers in each group are predetermined, there is no need for a 'Compare' button on this new page. Simply selecting a different group in the dropdown list will result in the prediction data being updated to show the information for the new group.
3. This functionality was more complicated to introduce than originally expected. Since the tee-off group information is generally available later in the week (normally on Tuesdays for regular events, sometimes Monday for bigger events with well defined fields) than the entry list (currently used to generate the predictions, usually on Mondays), this results in discrepancies. For example, there may be some golfers in the entry list (e.g. alternates) who are not in the tee-off group list. Similarly, there may be late entrants in the tee-off group list who are not in the entry list (or even in the database). In addition to dealing with these issues, metrics such as GP Rank, field strength and overround* have to be recalculated for each tournament**. It also means that, as things stand, I now have to input prediction information twice per week - on Monday as usual and again on Tuesday (or whenever the tee-off groups become available). 
4. On the other hand, the advantages of this new functionality are that the prediction list will be more accurate and there will be much fewer prediction records in the system for golfers who ended up not playing in the event.
5. For any other match-ups not involving members of the same tee-off group, you will have to continue to use the original 'Compare Predictions' page.
6. The group information for a tournament will be available from when the tee-off  information is inputted until when the results for one of the tournaments that week are inputted into the database. This will generally be from Tuesday evening to Sunday evening (GMT) of the tournament week.
7. Only the tee-off groups for the first two rounds (assuming a normal event with the cut after two rounds) with will be entered into the system. Groups for the weekend rounds will not be inputted at this point.
8. You may have to reload your current Golf Predictor page to see this new "Compare Tee-off Groups" menu option.

Just another way to make Golf Predictor even better! This new page is a terrific addition to the site and will greatly assist in analysing tee group match-ups for an event. The screenshot above shows the predictions for the 44th tee-off group for the 2013 HP Byron Nelson Championship. This group contains Ben Crane, John Huh and George McNeill and their prediction stats are shown in the table as a result. As with the original Compare Predictions page, hovering over an ID in the table shows more information in a pop-up. This is shown above for George McNeill.

As each group contains golfers with varying GP rankings, only subscribers can use this new page (non-subscribers are limited to golfers ranked 11-25). So, sign up today and reap the full benefits of Golf Predictor, the premium professional golf statistics site.

  

 *** Subscriber Feedback required ***
Due to the issues and ongoing workload with the second point above, I am considering either moving initial prediction generation from Mondays to Tuesdays (again) or else just add this group functionality for the bigger tournaments, e.g. majors/WGC & FedEx Cup events and selected others like The Players Championship (if the group information is not available on the Monday). I would like your feedback on this issue. If you have a problem with Tuesday predictions, would love to see the groups for every tournament or have no interest whatsoever in tee-off groups, please contact me or add a comment. For the time being, I shall continue to produce predictions on Monday as usual and update the system on Tuesday when the group information becomes available.

* Click here for an explanation of overround.
** For example, a whopping 85 golfer predictions were removed from the Madeira Open, reducing the field strength even more from about 59% to 51%.