2016 - Week 43 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the Turkish Airlines Open (European PGA Tour) and the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open (US PGA Tour), are now available on Golf Predictor. The European Tour heads back to Turkey for the fist leg of the big money Final Series and it's on a new course this year. Although Rory McIlroy is one of those withdrawals due to security concerns, Masters champion Danny Willett will be hoping to steal a march on the Northern Irishman and Henrik Stenson for the Race to Dubai title. Meanwhile, the Las Vegas event on the US PGA Tour hasn't got many big names competing in it this year. However, they do have reigning US PGA champion Jimmy Walker, who'll be hoping to play better than he did last week in China!

2016 - Week 42 Winners

Hideki Matsuyama (ranked 10th by Golf Predictor) won the WGC - HSBC Champions on the European/US PGA Tour. The 24 year old became the first Japanese winner of a WGC title with a dominating performance in Shanghai. Matsuyama kept his recent good form going by romping to a seven shot victory over a quality field. The Japanese sensation went bogey free on his final 45 holes, despite finding water on the seventy second hole! Our top ranked player, Rory McIlroy, finished strongly for tied 4th place and we had ten of the top sixteen plus ties (10/18) in total.

Cody Gribble (ranked 68th by Golf Predictor) won the Sanderson Farms Championship on the US PGA Tour. The 26 year old American became the first rookie winner in the new wraparound season, winning what was only his eighth event on the main tour. Gribble won in some style, playing some incredible golf down the stretch to win by four shots on -20. Our top ranked player, Chris Kirk, finished in tied 2nd and we had only eight of the top eighteen plus ties (8/22) in an event that is traditionally hard to call.

DFS (DraftKings) Lineup Picker now on Golf Predictor

New DFS Lineup Builder page showing some sliders & 3 golfers added to the lineup for the 2016 Portugal Masters

I am very happy to announce the addition of a great new 'DFS Lineup Builder' page to Golf Predictor. As can be glimpsed in the screenshot above, this new page is similar to the existing 'Filtered Prediction Rankings' page and is available from the same 'Predictions' menu in the Member section. However, while the 'Filtered Prediction Rankings' page simply allows you to identify golfers with certain statistics of your choosing, this new page goes further by allowing you to create a DFS lineup that you can export to DraftKings. 

In summary, this new page is a combination of the Filtered Prediction Rankings page on Golf Predictor and the Lineup Creator page on DraftKings! The sliders are the same on this new page as those on the 'Filtered Prediction Rankings' page, but the columns on the data table have been altered to contain just DFS data from DraftKings (i.e. salary, rank and average points per game). This can be seen in the screenshot above for the 2016 Portugal Masters, which has no filters actually applied so it shows the entire field. Some of the sliders are shown, as is the narrower data table containing the (filtered) field with DFS data underneath on the left. Pressing the "+" button on a row will transfer that golfer to the lineup table on the right. Conversely, pressing the "-" button on a row on the lineup table will remove that golfer from your lineup. Your remaining salary and number of golfers remaining will be automatically updated as you add and remove golfers and displayed above the lineup table. You can also export your completed lineup in a DraftKings compatible CSV file via the link above the lineup table.

Some notes on this new page (please see the notes on the 'Filtered Prediction Rankings' post, linked above, for slider specific notes) :

1. To keep things manageable, there is no sorting or paging on the (filtered) field DFS data table (left hand side above) on this new page. Instead, similar to DraftKings, the entire field is displayed in a single table with a scroll bar.
2. Due to the absence of sorting, the golfer names are displayed in both tables using the Firstname Lastname format. If necessary, you can search for a golfer using your browser search box.
3. The 'Remaining Salary' and 'Spots Left' value labels above the lineup table are colour coded to assist you (see screenshot above). If you stay under the salary cap, the label will be green, but if you exceed the cap, it will be red. Finally, when you have exactly $0 left, the label will be black. Similarly, while you have golfers left to pick, the 'Spots Left' label will be red and when you have selected the required number (6), it will change to green. In short, while either of these labels are red, you cannot export your lineup to a CSV file.
4. You can't add more than six golfers to the lineup table. You will get a pop-up message to that effect if you try.
5. Adding a golfer to the DFS Lineup table doesn't remove him from the (filtered) field table (LHS). However, you can't add the same golfer more than once to the lineup table. You will get a pop-up message to that effect if you try.
6. As alluded to above, you can't export your lineup to a DraftKings compatible CSV file unless you stay under the salary cap of $50,000. You will get a pop-up message to that effect if you try.
7. As also alluded to above, you can't export your lineup to a DraftKings compatible CSV file unless you have selected six golfers. You will get a pop-up message to that effect if you try.
8. The exported file is a CSV file that is designed to be compatible with DraftKings and imported into their site using their Upload Lineups tool. To facilitate this, I now also import the player DraftKings player IDs for the tournament.
9. Further to the above point, if you hover over a golfer name in the DFS data table, you will see his DraftKings ID for the tournament. This facilitates the CSV export using JavaScript/jQuery alone (see next point).
10. The adding and removing of golfers to and from the lineup table is done entirely in your browser using JQuery/JavaScript. As mentioned above, the CSV export is also done on your browser (as opposed to being done on the Golf Predictor server and transmitted back!) with the same technology.
11. The CSV file export may not work on IE 9 (or earlier) browser. I have tested it on IE11 in IE 9 compatibility mode and it works fine. If you still use IE 9, it really is long past time to upgrade to a decent browser!
12. If you edit the exported CSV file, it may not upload to DraftKings correctly. For example, DraftKings seems to need two blank lines at the end of the file before it will upload it. Therefore, please do not remove these lines from the CSV file! 
13. Please check your uploaded lineup on DraftKings to make sure it contains the golfers you selected*. The DraftKings IDs for a tournament have to sourced from a text file on the DraftKings Lineup Upload page, which is different to the text file that is already used on Golf Predictor to import the DraftKings stats. I have asked DraftKings to include the IDs on this text file (downloadable from the Draft Team page) and have received a very positive reply. Until that happens, I have to rely on both text files having the same golfers in the same order, which has been the case so far in my experience.
14. If I cannot source the tournament player IDs for whatever reason, you will not be able to export your lineup to a DraftKings compatible CSV file. This is because DraftKings only accepts  player IDs and not their names.
15. Only golfers with DFS information (i.e. on the DraftKings list) are shown on the (filtered) field DFS data table (LHS). Since typically not all golfers in the field are on the DraftKings list, the missing ones will not be visible on this page. 
16. Your filtered rankings and DraftKings lineup are just displayed on this page and not saved. This means that if you were to click on a link as usual (e.g. to a golfer prediction data page) and return to this page via the browser's Back button, your filtered rankings and lineup choices will be lost. Because of this, the golfer prediction data links on this page open up in a new browser window. If you want to return to this page, I recommend right-clicking on any other link (e.g. the tournament page link) and opening the page in a new tab/window.
17. The number of matching results for your filter(s) is displayed above the table showing the filtered field DFS data (LHS).
18. You can only filter the predictions and create lineups for tournaments with no results in the system (i.e. the current week's event(s) before the results are inputted). This is because the filtering  functionality could be relatively resource intensive and not to be "wasted" on old tournaments! In addition, the DraftKings IDs are not available for tournaments before last week (GP week 41, the week of the 2016 Portugal Masters and the 2016/17 CIMB Classic), so the CSV export would not work. 
19. I was able to find and fix several minor bugs in the original 'Filtered Prediction Rankings' page while working on this new page!
20. I have tested this new page on FireFox, Chrome, IE11 & MS Edge, but with 52 different filters and the addition of the lineup builder, it is possible something sneaked in through the cracks. Please contact me immediately if you experience any problems with the page. 
21. A lot of work has gone into this page, so I hope you find it useful!

Just another way to make Golf Predictor even better! This new page is a terrific addition to the site for DraftKings users and should greatly assist you in analysing the field for an event and creating that killer lineup! You can now easily identify good picks for the upcoming tournaments using any of the 52 metrics and export your lineup to Draftkings.

As this is a premium feature which will expose golfers outside those ranked 11-25 by the GP algorithm, only subscribers can filter the tournament field. Non-subscribers can access the page and create lineups for DraftKings using only those golfers ranked 11-25 by Golf Predictor, but the 'Filter' button will be disabled. So, sign up today and reap the full benefits of Golf Predictor, the premium professional golf statistics site.


*Golf Predictor is not responsible for any losses that may accrue due to any errors. The onus is on you to check your lineup.

2016 - Week 42 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the WGC - HSBC Champions (European/US PGA Tour) and the Sanderson Farms Championship (US PGA Tour), are now available on Golf Predictor. Although world number one Jason Day isn't playing this year either, there is still a very strong field for the last WGC of the season. While fourteen of the top twenty in the world will be teeing it up in Shanghai, a second string line up will be battling it out in Mississippi. Only three out of the world's top one hundred will be playing in the event, so there is a good chance of a surprise winner!

2016 - Week 41 Winners

Padraig Harrington (ranked 10th by Golf Predictor) won the Portugal Masters on the European PGA Tour. The 45 year old Irishman won his first tour title in since 2008 and his fifteenth overall in Vilamoura. In a week of low scoring, Harrington made some trademark up and downs on the back nine to pip defending champion Andy Sullivan by a single shot on -23. Our top ranked player, Alex Noren, finished in tied 37th and we had only four of the top seventeen plus ties (4/21) at the birdiefest in the Algarve.

Justin Thomas (ranked 9th by Golf Predictor) won the CIMB Classic on the US PGA Tour. The 23 year old American successfully defended his title with another impressive display in Malaysia. Except for a blip on Saturday, Thomas played some great golf on Sunday to win by three from Hideki Matsuyama. Thomas had some help though, as another course specialist Anirban Lahiri threw away a commanding three shot lead with a calamitous quadruple bogey on the third hole. The Indian never recovered and Thomas never looked back, easing to his second win both here and on tour. Our top ranked player, Adam Scott, finished in tied 10th and like last year, we had ten of the top seventeen plus ties (10/20). 

2016 - Week 41 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the CIMB Classic (US PGA Tour) and the Portugal Masters (European PGA Tour) are now available on Golf Predictor. Like the past few years, the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club, the home of the Maybank Malaysian Open on the European Tour for the past few years, is hosting the US Tour. As most of the field is from the US Tour, course history from the European Tour events is not much of a factor. There are a few big names in the Malaysian event this year, so it should make for a good week of golf on the US PGA Tour. The field in Portugal is more modest, but there are a significant number of the bigger regulars on European Tour playing in the Algarve.
 

2016 - Week 40 Winners

Alex Noren (ranked 1st* by Golf Predictor) won the British Masters supp. by Sky Sports on the European PGA Tour. The 34 year old Swede continued his impressive form by claiming his third title of the season at The Grove. After a great start, Noren faltered around the turn and let the chasing pack back into contention. However, he was able to steady the ship and finished strongly with a closing birdie to win by two shots. Noren was our top ranked player with the withdrawal of Danny Willett, and we had eight of the top eighteen plus ties (8/21).

Brendan Steele (ranked 20th by Golf Predictor) won the Safeway Open on the US PGA Tour. The 33 year old American won his second tour title by a single shot from Patton Kizzire. Steele, who let victory slip here last year with a poor final round, redeemed himself with a strong three birdie finish which set a target Kizzire just could not match. Our top ranked player, Paul Casey, finished in tied 3rd and in a tournament traditionally hard to predict, we had eight of the top twenty plus ties (8/21). 


*Our top ranked player, Danny Willett, pulled out, promoting Noren to the top rank.

2016 - Week 40 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the Safeway Open (US PGA Tour) and the British Masters supp. by Sky Sports (European PGA Tour) are now available on Golf Predictor. It's the first event of the new 2016/17 US PGA Tour season, but there not many big guns trying to get their new campaigns off to a flying start. Excitement was mounting for the latest return of Tiger Woods, but he has withdrawn due to the fragility of his game. Like last year, the field in England is modest and the tournament has moved to The Grove, which won't make forecasting it any easier!

2016 - Week 39 Winners

Tyrrell Hatton (ranked 20th by Golf Predictor) won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on the European PGA Tour. The 24 year old Englishman won his maiden tour title with an impressive display in Scotland. Leading by three overnight after a course record equalling 62 on the Old Course, a delighted Hatton played impeccably on Sunday and was never threatened. With a closing 66, he tied the tournament record score of -23 in a seemingly nerveless display. Our top ranked player, Danny Willett, missed the cut, but we had eleven of the top eighteen plus ties (11/24).

Brandt Snedeker (ranked 1st by Golf Predictor) won the inaugural Fiji International on the European PGA Tour. The 35 year old American hot favourite won his first tour title with a comfortable victory in the South Pacific. Leading by three overnight, Snedeker continued his good play after last week's Ryder Cup and won by nine shots in the end. Despite the windy conditions, the American went 49 holes without a bogey at one stage during the tournament. Snedeker was our top ranked player and we had thirteen of the top twenty one plus ties (13/23).


There was no event on the US PGA Tour this week as it is the short close season.

2016 - Week 39 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and the Fiji International (both European PGA Tour), are now available on Golf Predictor. There is no event on the US PGA Tour this week as it is the short close season. However, after the excitement of the Ryder Cup, the European PGA Tour rolls on with the celebrity fest and an exotic new tournament this week! While there aren't many big golfing names teeing it up in either event (especially in Fiji!), there is a solid list of European Tour stalwarts teeing it up on the three courses in Scotland. It looks like golfers and celebrities alike have the usual difficult weather conditions for the event! The European Tour continues to move as far away from Europe as it possibly can and has outdone itself this time with the co-sanctioned event in the South Pacific!