2015 - Week 35 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the M2M Russian Open (European PGA Tour) and the Deutsche Bank Championship (US PGA Tour), are now available on Golf Predictor. As usual, there is a strong field in Boston for the second play-off event, with Rory McIlroy returning to action to join 16 other members of the top 20 in the world rankings, all jockeying for position in the FedEx Cup. As usual, there are no big golf names in action in the Russian event this week. However former tennis grand slam winner Yevgeny Kafelnikov is teeing it up again! Indeed, with not one of the top 150 in the world is taking part and 95 outside the top 500 in the world (52 outside the top 1000), the field strength for this event is very low.

2015 - Week 34 Winners

Thomas Pieters (ranked 20th by Golf Predictor) won the D+D REAL Czech Masters on the European PGA Tour. The 23 year old Belgian won his maiden tour title by three shots over Pelle Edberg. The big hitting Pieters overcame a double bogey on his front nine to coast home in front of his family, who drove nine hours overnight to cheer him on to victory. Our top ranked player, Victor Dubuisson, finished in tied 27th place and we had eight of the top seventeen plus ties (8/21) in total. 

Jason Day (ranked 2nd by Golf Predictor) won The Barclays on the US PGA Tour. The 27 year old Australian won his first FedEx Cup play-off event and second big tournament in a row with a brilliant weekend performance. After winning his first major at the US PGA Championship last time out, Day shot an incredible 63-62 over the weekend to blow away the field and win by six shots in New Jersey. Our top ranked player, Jordan Spieth, unexpectedly missed the cut and we had eight of the top sixteen plus ties (8/19) in total.

Style Updated on Some GP UI Elements

Compare Predictions page showing updated listbox style

Some minor changes have been made to the listboxes and dropdown boxes on Golf Predictor. As can be seen in the screenshot above of the listbox on Compare Predictions page, these UI  (User Interface) elements have been re-styled using Twitter Bootstrap. These means they look a little better than before and are highlighted in blue when selected. The "Stats to Compare" dropdown box shown above is also styled this way, as are all other such UI elements on the site. Just another way to make Golf Predictor a little better!

New 'Field Rankings (Summary)' Page Added to Golf Predictor

Snippet of new page for the 2015 Wyndham Championship with multiple field rankings and Matsuyama, Koepka & Horschel highlighted

GP video tutorial on this new page

I am happy to announce the addition of a  useful new 'Field Rankings (Summary)' page to Golf Predictor. This new page is available from the 'Predictions' menu and is basically an enhanced version of the existing Field Rankings page. As can be seen in the screenshot for the 2015 Wyndham Championship above, you can now see the field rankings for many important key metrics at the same time. This gives you an overview of the best performers in the field in the various important metrics at a glance. The metrics ranked on this page are:

1. World Ranking
2. Performance Likelihood
3. Cut Streaks
4. Winless Streaks
5. Historical Stats (Season/Last Five Events/Same Course/Same Tournament/previous twelve similar events)

For each of the historical stats (selectable from the dropdown list), the following metrics are ranked:

1. Average finishing position
2. Wins
3. Top Tens
4. Missed Cuts

That gives a total of eight field rankings visible on the same page at any one time. With the different historical stats selectable from the dropdown box, there are a total of 24 field rankings available on the page. This dropdown box was introduced to reduce the processing and the size of the web page needed to show them all at the same time! The different data tables each display twelve golfer records per page, but you can use the pager on each one to see more golfers.

Consolidating this data on this new page should make it much easier to spot good fantasy golf, DFS golf or betting picks for an upcoming tournament. While this information was available previously on Golf Predictor, it was only available for one metric at a time on pages like the the Field Rankings page. This new 'Field Rankings (Summary)' page is perfect for a quick overview of the relative performance of all the players in the field in the above metrics. As can be seen in the screenshot above, you can now highlight golfers of interest to make them stand out in all the data tables. Simply choose up to three golfers from the field list at press the Highlight button to see the golfers highlighted in different colours. Some notes on this new page:

1. You may have to reload your current Golf Predictor page to see this new 'Field Rankings (Summary)' menu option.
2. Golf Predictor tournament rankings go back to the middle of the 2008 season and some metrics are not available for older events. Keep this in mind if you are perusing old tournaments on this page.
3. As usual, you can hover over a player name for more information, as shown above for Bill Haas for the World Ranking metric.
4. Players with no relevant statistics are omitted from the results on each data table.
5. A mixture of partial and full updating is used on the page. Sorting/paging a data table or selecting a new option in the historical stats drop down box will not involve a full page refresh. However, changing the tournament or the highlighted golfers will involve a full page refresh. On testing, this proved to be the best scenario.
6. Selecting a new tournament resets the data table sorting, data table paging and the historical stats drop down box to 'GP Season'. It also clears the golfers selected for highlighting. 
7. Selecting a new option in the historical stats drop down box resets the sorting and the paging on the four historical data tables.
8. There is a Reset button under the field list which you can use to clear the golfer highlighting.
9. Your chosen golfers may not be on the first page of any data table.  They will be highlighted on the page that they appear on (assuming they havea non zero value for the relevant stat).
10. There are a lot of moving parts in this page, between the tournament selection dropdown boxes, the historical stats drop down box, the field list and associated buttons for highlighting and the eight data tables on the page at any one time. I have done a considerable amount of testing, but it is possible I missed something. If you experience any issues, please contact me immediately.

I trust you will find this new functionality very useful for your fantasy golf, DFS golf or betting needs. Because this new page is relatively computationally intensive, it is limited to subscribers only. Therefore, sign up today and reap the full benefits of Golf Predictor, the premium professional golf statistics site.

2015 - Week 34 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the D+D REAL Czech Masters (European PGA Tour) and The Barclays (US PGA Tour), are now available on Golf Predictor. It's the first week of the lucrative FedEx Cup play-offs on the US PGA Tour and although there is no Rory McIlroy, there is still an impressive line up for the event. McIlroy is wisely giving his ankle more time to recover while Sergio Garcia is the only other top fifteen player in the world not teeing it up in New Jersey. Meanwhile, the field in the Czech Republic is not quite as impressive, with only one member of the top fifty (and barely, at that!) in the world playing in Prague.

2015 - Week 33 Winners

David Horsey (ranked 2nd by Golf Predictor) won the Made in Denmark on the European PGA Tour. The 30 year old Englishman overcame a late hiccup his fourth tour title with a wire to wire victory. Horsey finished with a two over par 73, but that was still enough to win by two shots over a chasing quartet. Our top ranked player, Marc Warren, finished tied 44th and we had six of the top fourteen plus ties (6/19). 

Davis Love III (ranked 130th by Golf Predictor) won the Wyndham Championship on the US PGA Tour. The 51 year old American became the third oldest winner ever on the US PGA Tour with his third win at the event. In doing so, he replaced Padraig Harrington as this season's most unfancied winner and became the second most unfancied winner (after Derek Ernst in 2013) since Golf Predictor began in 2008! Our top ranked player, Brooks Koepka, finished well for tied 6th and we had ten of the top eighteen plus ties (10/25) in total.

Subscription Page Updated on Golf Predictor

Old subscribe panel

New subscribe panels

The subscription page on  Golf Predictor have been updated. This change is purely cosmetic and adds significantly to the visual appeal of the page. Unfortunately, it will probably not ease the pain of paying, but at least it should make it more aesthetically pleasing! The before and after pictures are shown above, with the design of the new colour panels coming courtesy of Designify. As you can see, the new layout is a significant improvement over the original. After seven years, it was well due an update! To make it more obvious that you will be paying with PayPal, I have added a PayPal banner above the panels on the new layout (not visible above).

I have also finally updated the Golf Predictor banner on the PayPal payment page, as I only just realised it was still using an old image. If you experience any issues subscribing with this new page, please contact me immediately. Just another way to make Golf Predictor a little better! 

2015 - Week 33 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the Wyndham Championship (US PGA Tour) and the Made in Denmark (European PGA Tour), are now available on Golf Predictor. There are not many big names competing in America this week, with the Wyndham Championship coming between the last major of the season and the first FedEx Cup play-off event next week. However, a few fairly big guns are turning up, along with a host of middle tier guys trying to improve/maintain their place in the FedEx Cup standings. Meanwhile, the European Tour is in Denmark where the home players are once again out in force. These include Thomas Bjorn and recent winner Soren Kjeldsen, who are among the bigger names in the field.

2015 - Week 32 Winner

Jason Day (ranked 3rd by Golf Predictor) won the US PGA Championship on the European/US PGA Tour. The 27 year old Australian finally secured his elusive first major title with an assured final day performance. After a series of close calls in previous majors, Day built on his two shot overnight lead and was never in any real danger of being caught, despite Jordan Spieth's best efforts. Day finished with an impressive 67 (-5) to win by three shots from the young Texan. Our top ranked player, Rory McIlroy, finished in tied 15th in his comeback from his serious ankle injury. Overall, we had eight of the top eighteen plus ties (8/20) in total.

Cut and Winless Streaks Adjusted on Golf Predictor

The cut and winless streak calculations on Golf Predictor have been slightly adjusted. This change only affects golfers who are playing their first tournament. Previously, such golfers were assigned zero values for both streaks. This is not strictly accurate, especially in the case of winless streaks, as it gives them a value the same as someone who won their previous tournament. Consequently, they showed up intermingled with recent winners when you sorted by the streak columns on the main Prediction Rankings page.

This has therefore been changed and new golfers will not have any values for the streaks. Instead, they will show up as "n/a" in the streak columns and can be ignored when sorting by these columns. The streak calculations will be the same as before for all other golfers. All streak calculations for such golfers in previous tournaments have been updated to reflect this change, which will make comparing the streaks more accurate. Just another way to make Golf Predictor a little better!

Field Rankings Adjusted on Golf Predictor

The field ranking calculations on Golf Predictor have been adjusted to take the number of events played into account for the appropriate metrics. For metrics where a lower number is better (e.g. average position in current season/last five events etc.), in the case of a tie, golfers who have played more tournaments will be ranked higher. For those metrics where a higher number is better (e.g. wins/top tens in the current season), in the case of a tie, golfers who have played less tournaments will be ranked higher. This is because in the former situation, it indicates more consistency and in the latter situation it represents a higher percentage. This is only fair, but it doesn't apply to the ranking of certain metrics, such as world ranking or performance likelihood, which remain unchanged.

All data tables and charts have been updated to reflect this change, which will make the field rankings more accurate. Just another way to make Golf Predictor a little better!

2015 - Week 32 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the US PGA Championship (European/US PGA Tour), are now available on Golf Predictor. Just the one tournament to cover this week, but it's a big one! It's the final major of the season and the PGA Championship heads to Whistling Straits for the first time since 2010. Let's hope Dustin Johnson doesn't ground his club in any so called bunkers this time around! It's the last chance for eight months for a golfer to land one of those prestigious titles, so that's probably why world number one Rory McIlroy has made a quicker than expected return from his ankle injury to tee it up this week in Wisconsin.

2015 - Week 31 Winners

Shane Lowry (ranked 42nd by Golf Predictor) won the WGC - Bridgestone Invitational on the European/US PGA Tour. The 28 year old Irishman built on his recent decent form by securing the biggest win of his career. Lowry finished with an assured bogey free final round of 66 to win by two shots from Bubba Watson. Lowry closed with an unlikely birdie after finding trouble off the final tee. That win secured his PGA Tour card and caused much celebration here in Ireland! Our top ranked player, Jordan Spieth, finished in tied 10th and we had eleven of the top seventeen plus ties (11/24) in total.

J.J. Henry (ranked 49th by Golf Predictor) won the Barracuda Championship on the US PGA Tour. The 40 year old American secured his third tour title and his second in Reno with a play-off win over Kyle Riefers in the modified Stableford event. Despite finishing with a record 22 points that included three eagles in his final six holes, Riefers lost out ironically enough to an eagle on the second extra hole! Our top ranked player, George Coetzee, finished in tied 7th and we had only eight of the top eighteen plus ties (8/19*) in the second tier event. 


*The withdrawal of Andres Romero promotes David Toms into the top 19 of the GP rankings.

Round Stats Table Added to Golfer Season Stats Page

New Round Scores table (top) on Jordan Spieth's 2015 Season Stats page

The season stats page for each golfer on Golf Predictor has been updated with a new table to show the best and worse round scores for the golfer in question in the selected season. This new table is similar to the one already on the golfer page for his entire career. As with that table, you can hover over the round value to see what tournament(s) the score was shot in. This is shown in the screenshot above, which shows a portion of the 2015 season stats page for Jordan Spieth. As can be seen, his season worst (at time of writing!) first round of 75 was shot twice, at the WGC-Cadillac Championship and The Players Championship.

This new table should make these golfer Season Stats pages even more useful. Just another way to make Golf Predictor a little better!

Major Update to Compare Pages on Golf Predictor

Updated Compare Page with new stats dropdown, showing new DFS/PL(%)/Streak stats and chart links for the 2015 WGC - Bridgestone Invitational for three of the bigger names

 GP video tutorial on these updated compare pages

Following on from the recent golfer key and colour coding update, I am pleased to announce a major update to the 'Compare Predictions' pages (main and tee-off groups versions) on Golf Predictor. In addition to the stats that were already on the page, you can now directly compare more comprehensive season, last five tournament, course, tournament and last twelve similar tournament history stats. These new options are selectable from the new "Stats to Compare" dropdown list and basically offer the same functionality as the first five options on the Form menu, but just for the golfers of your choosing (up to ten on the main Compare page) or for the members of the selected tee-off group (tee-off groups version).

In addition, you can now also directly compare the DFS, performance likelihood percentage (PL(%)), cut streak and winless streak stats on these updated Compare pages. This can be seen in the screenshot above for the 2015 WGC - Bridgestone Invitational, which shows the new stats dropdown list and the new DFS/PL(%)/streak stats for Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson. As usual, you can hover over the golfer name for more information, as also shown above for Henrik Stenson. All these new stats are colour coded to highlight the best and the worst in each column, in keeping with the previous update to these pages. This new functionality should be a great help for deciding between a number of golfers for your fantasy golf, DFS line-up or betting needs.

Finally, to complement these new stats, forty (yes, 40!) new charts have been added to Golf Predictor. This brings the total on the site crashing through the 400 mark to 420 in total. These new charts compare graphically your chosen golfers in the new stats added to the page. The full list of new charts is:

1. Season standard deviation (of average finishing position) comparison chart for all selected golfers.
2. Season rounds played comparison chart for all selected golfers.
3. Season voids (non-finishes) comparison chart for all selected golfers.
4. Course standard deviation (of average finishing position) comparison chart for all selected golfers.
5. Course rounds played comparison chart for all selected golfers.
6. Course scoring average comparison chart for all selected golfers.
7. Course tournaments played comparison chart for all selected golfers.
8. Course top tens comparison chart for all selected golfers.
9. Course wins comparison chart for all selected golfers.
10. Course missed cuts comparison chart for all selected golfers.
11. Course voids (non-finishes) comparison chart for all selected golfers.
12. Tournament standard deviation (of average finishing position) comparison chart for all selected golfers.
13. Tournament rounds played comparison chart for all selected golfers.
14. Tournament scoring average comparison chart for all selected golfers.
15. Tournament tournaments played comparison chart for all selected golfers.
16. Tournament top tens comparison chart for all selected golfers.
17. Tournament wins comparison chart for all selected golfers.
18. Tournament missed cuts comparison chart for all selected golfers.
19. Tournament voids (non-finishes) comparison chart for all selected golfers.
20. Similar tournament standard deviation (of average finishing position) comparison chart for all selected golfers.
21. Similar tournament rounds played comparison chart for all selected golfers.
22. Similar tournament scoring average comparison chart for all selected golfers.
23. Similar tournament tournaments played comparison chart for all selected golfers.
24. Similar tournament top tens comparison chart for all selected golfers.
25. Similar tournament wins comparison chart for all selected golfers.
26. Similar tournament missed cuts comparison chart for all selected golfers.
27. Similar tournament voids (non-finishes) comparison chart for all selected golfers.
28. Season last 5 events standard deviation (of average finishing position) comparison chart for all selected golfers.
29. Season last 5 events tournaments played comparison chart for all selected golfers.
30. Season last 5 events top tens comparison chart for all selected golfers.
31. Season last 5 events wins comparison chart for all selected golfers.
32. Season last 5 events missed cuts comparison chart for all selected golfers.
33. Season last 5 events voids (non-finishes) comparison chart for all selected golfers.
34. Performance Likelihood comparison chart for all selected golfers.
35. Cut Streak comparison chart for all selected golfers.
36. Winless Streak comparison chart for all selected golfers.
37. DFS (DraftKings) rank comparison chart for all selected golfers. 
38. DFS (DraftKings) salary comparison chart for all selected golfers.
39. DFS (DraftKings) average points/game comparison chart for all selected golfers.  
40. DFS (DraftKings) dollars/point comparison chart for all selected golfers.

Some notes on these updates to the 'Compare Predictions' pages:

1. The new 'Stats to Compare' dropdown list doesn't auto reload the page when a new option is selected. Simply select the golfers of interest (main Compare page) and the stats to compare from the new dropdown list and press the 'Compare Golfers' button to see the stats and chart links (charts only appear if more than one golfer selected). 
2. A 'Compare Golfers'  button has been added and the auto reload feature has been removed from the 'Tee-off Groups' dropdown list on the tee-off groups version of the page to allow you to select a value from this new 'Stats to Compare' dropdown list.
3. The stats that were on the original Compare Predictions page are still available via the "Overview" option in the "Stats to Compare" dropdown list.
4. The highlighting of zero values for the historical stats options has changed from that for the Overview (original page). The wins, top tens, missed cuts and non-finishes columns will be appropriately highlighted if all golfers have zero for this column.
5. In addition to above, if the golfer has no relevant history, the only column that is colour coded is the Rank column.
6. Some golfer comparison charts are not available for older tournaments. The charts are only available from when the stat was introduced to Golf Predictor. This will be told to you if you click on such a chart link for an older tournament.
7. A lot of work has gone into this new comparison functionality and much testing had to be done on the large amount of new stats and charts added to the pages. If you spot any errors with this new functionality, please contact me immediately.

Note that you must be subscribed to Golf Predictor to access these stats for all golfers in the field and to view all the charts. Non subscribers will only be able to see the data for those golfers ranked 11-25 and only 1 of the now whopping 57 charts available on this page. So, sign up today to make the most out of this comprehensive update to the compare functionality on Golf Predictor, the best professional golf stats site on the web!

2015 - Week 31 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the WGC - Bridgestone Invitational (European/US PGA Tour) and the Barracuda Championship (US PGA Tour), are now available on Golf Predictor. It's the first of two weeks of big tournaments in the US this week with the WGC event as usual serving as a final tune-up for the last major of the season, the US PGA Championship next week. The second string Stableford event in Reno has to make do with only one golfer from the top one hundred in the world rankings as all the big names playing this week are teeing it up in Ohio.

2015 - Week 30 Winners

Kiradech Aphibarnrat (ranked 14th by Golf Predictor) won the inaugural Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Match Play on the European PGA Tour. The 26 year old Thai won his third tour title with a one hole victory over Robert Karlsson. Aphibarnrat looked to be coasting to victory when he was three up with four to play, but when the Swede won the next three holes, it was all to play for on the last. However, a brilliant second shot to about four feet allowed the Thai to sink the winning putt. Our top ranked player, Marc Warren, finished in 4th in the restricted field event.

Roope Kakka (ranked 22nd by Golf Predictor) won the rescheduled Madeira Islands Open - Portugal - BPI on the European PGA Tour. The 33 year old Finn won his first tour title with a fantastic weekend performance. Kakka followed an eight under par 64 on Saturday with a nine under par 63 on Sunday to win by three and set a record score of -24 in the process. Our top ranked player, Prom Meesawat, missed the cut and we had eight of the top eighteen plus ties (8/24) in an event that is usually hard to predict. 

Troy Merritt (ranked 97th by Golf Predictor) won the Quicken Loans National on the US PGA Tour. The 29 year old American also finished strongly over the weekend to win his maiden tour title by three shots. Despite missing his last five cuts, Merritt turned his game around and backed up his 61 (-10) on Saturday with an assured final round of 67 to seal the victory. Our top ranked player, Justin Rose, finished in tied 4th and we had fourteen of the top twenty one plus ties (14/29) in total.