2013 - Week 47 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the Alfred Dunhill Championship (European PGA Tour), are now available on Golf Predictor. Local hero Charl Schwartzel is leading a strong South African contingent and as usual there isn't much by way of international competition. In fact, England's Ross Fisher is the only one of the five members of the world's top hundred in the field not from Southern Africa.

2013 - Week 46 Winner

Morten Orum Madsen (ranked 21st by Golf Predictor) won the South African Open on the European PGA Tour. The 25 year old Dane became the second Scandinavian winner of the event in a row, securing his first tour title by two shots over two home golfers, Jbe Krugar and 2011 champion Hennie Otto. Defending champion and 2013 Race to Dubai winner Henrik Stenson had to pull out prior to the event with a wrist injury. Our top ranked golfer, another home favourite Charl Schwartzel, unexpectedly squandered his third round lead and finished in tied 4th place. Overall, we had seven of the top seventeen plus ties (7/21) in total.

New Nine Holes at Carne Golf Club - Part Deux

This is a follow-up to my previous article about my local course in Carne, near Belmullet in Co. Mayo, Ireland. Therefore, this post hasn't anything to do with Golf Predictor either! On another trip home last weekend, I got the opportunity to walk the new nine holes, this time in the correct order and with the greens complete. These new "Kilmore" nine holes have been open for a few months now to generally rave reviews and I jumped at the opportunity to accompany my uncle as he pitted his wits against the imposing layout and the elements. The weather was dry for a change, but it was extremely windy, with a gale blowing mostly from left to right on the early holes.

Overall, the layout is very challenging for the high and low handicapper alike. The former will spend a lot of time searching for (and losing!) golf balls in the thick grass up on huge dunes and down in deep depressions. The latter will have to use all their course management skills to find the right angle into the right section of undulating greens in the usual windy conditions. Compared to the existing eighteen holes, I would say the terrain is broadly similar to the back nine, with slightly higher dunes perhaps and much more undulating greens. Although very new, the greens are in surprisingly good condition, except for two near the end which were a little patchy.

The first new hole is a par five and it will be a challenge to find the putting surface with a wood/long iron/hybrid, protected as it is on almost every side (and especially the front left by a large depression):

Looking towards the first green (I'm a shadow of my current self!)

The par three second looks great from the tee, with the green nestled just to the left of large dune:

Second hole from the tee.

The second sports a large undulating green with a slope from back to front and a huge natural sand dune/bunker to right of the putting surface:

The undulating second green with adjacent large sandbank

The third hole is a lovely looking downhill par four. This time the green is nestled to the right of a large dune:

The third hole with my uncle just after he had lost another ball!

The fourth hole is an imposing par three with an elevated green:

The par three fourth hole with the wild Atlantic in the background.

The par five fifth hole is the one that had the large dune splitting the fairway in my previous post. However, since that time, the area to the right of the mound has been let grow, leaving left as your only option.

The par five fifth hole from the tee

Your second shot will be blind around that large central dune and the hole veers slightly uphill to the green:

Fifth fairway with central dune centre right (& otter droppings in foreground!)

The sixth hole is an uphill straight par four:

Sixth hole from the tee

This is another hole with an undulating green:

The sixth green

The seventh hole is another nice par three, with short being your only safe bale out option:

Seventh hole from the tee. The green is straight ahead and that's my uncle's jacket in bottom right!

The penultimate hole is a challenging par four to a raised undulating green:

The eighth green from the fairway

This eighth green was one of the patchy ones, but this will improve with time. The final hole has you heading back towards the clubhouse with a drive to a very undulating fairway:

Ninth hole from just above the yellow tee with the clubhouse in the back left.

Overall, I was very impressed with the new Kilmore nine holes. They offer a strong physical and mental challenge to golfers of all levels and when they mature in a year or two, the twenty seven holes at Carne will offer as good a test of links golf as you will find anywhere. In addition, the views from some of the elevated tees are impressive, with panoramic views of the wild Atlantic and associated islands in one direction and Blacksod Bay and Achill Island in the other. So, if you're looking for an exhilarating links golf experience, you now have twenty seven great reasons to make the trek up to Carne.

That's my bit done for local tourism!

2013 - Week 46 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the South African Open (European PGA Tour) are now available on Golf Predictor. Although the 2013 European PGA Tour season is over, the 2014 season starts again straight away! As Golf Predictor uses the GP Season (calendar year) to try and maintain some sort of order in the scheduling chaos across both major tours, we're still in the 2013 GP Season!

2013 - Week 45 Winners

Henrik Stenson (ranked 1st by Golf Predictor) won the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai on the European PGA Tour. The 37 year old Swede capped off a remarkable second half of the season with a majestic performance to clinch the Race to Dubai. Stenson gave a golf master class to win by six shots on a record score of -25, helped by a tap-in eagle at the last after a tremendous approach. Stenson became the first winner of the Challenge Tour to win the Race to Dubai and the first golfer to win both it and the FedEx Cup in the same season. His bank manager must be ecstatic! Overall, including the winner, we had eleven of the top fourteen plus ties (11/16). That's an impressive ending to the season by Golf Predictor also!

Harris English (ranked 4th by Golf Predictor) won the OHL Classic at Mayakoba on the US PGA Tour. The 24 year old American won his second tour title with an impressive final day performance in Mexico. Our top ranked player, Ryan Moore, finished in tied 23rd and in an event where many of the bigger names did not perform, we had five of the top sixteen plus ties (5/22).

2013 - Week 45 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions/statistics for this week, the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai (European PGA Tour) and the OHL Classic at Mayakoba (US PGA Tour), are now available on Golf Predictor. It's the last event of the 2013 season (but not the year!) on the European PGA Tour and the money race has heated up in the past few weeks with Henrik Stenson barely hanging on to the lead. Meanwhile, it's the last event of the year (but not the season!) on the US Tour, but despite its new slot in the schedule, there is still a second string line up for the Mexican tournament. That, coupled with the forecast high winds and rain makes it a difficult event to predict.

2013 - Week 44 Winners

Victor Dubuisson (ranked 22nd by Golf Predictor) won the inaugural Turkish Airlines Open pres. by Ministry of Tourism & Culture on the European PGA Tour. The 23 year old Frenchman sealed an impressive maiden victory with a closing birdie to win by two shots over Jamie Donaldson. Our top ranked player, Tiger Woods, finished strongly for tied 3rd and we had seven of the top fifteen plus ties (7/17).

Chris Kirk (ranked 7th by Golf Predictor) won The McGladrey Classic on the US PGA Tour. The 28 year old American won his second PGA Tour title in a final day tussle with Briny Baird. After Kirk birdied the penultimate hole to draw level, he secured the title with a closing par when his nearest opponent found water from a fairway bunker. I had tipped and backed Kirk at 40/1 each way, so I was happy that he came through for my second such win in successive weeks! Our top ranked player, Matt Kuchar, finished in 7th and we had seven of the top sixteen plus ties (7/19) overall.

2013 - Week 44 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the Turkish Airlines Open pres. by Ministry of Tourism & Culture (European PGA Tour) and The McGladrey Classic (US PGA Tour), are now available on Golf Predictor. The European Tour heads to Turkey for the first time for this new big money Final Series event and Tiger Woods has been "persuaded" to take part! Meanwhile, a few more current big names than normal are teeing it up in Georgia, thanks no doubt to its new status and position near the start of the new wraparound season.

Minor Enhancement to SLC Table on Prediction Page

New course yardage/par information on SLC table pop-up

A minor enhancement has been made to the main Prediction page for each golfer on Golf Predictor. As shown in the screenshot above, you can now see the course length and par on the Similar Length Course Results table. This is an obvious way to make this table a little more useful and Golf Predictor a little better!


Note: You may have to refresh a page in your browser, if you recently viewed a Prediction page for a particular golfer.

2013 - Week 43 Winner

Dustin Johnson (ranked 18th by Golf Predictor) won the WGC - HSBC Champions on the European/US PGA Tour. The big hitting American played some great golf (despite the occasional double bogey!) to win with an impressive -24 total in Shanghai. I had tipped and backed Johnson at 40/1 each way, so I was happy that he held on to his three shot cushion after the third round! However, he still needed a strong finish to hold off defending champion Ian Poulter, who had actually led by one with six holes to play. Our top ranked player, Phil Mickelson, showed signs of his swing coming back and finished in 14th place. Overall, we had eleven of the top eighteen plus ties (11/19) in total.