2019 - Week 5 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the Saudi International (European PGA Tour) and the Waste Management Phoenix Open (US PGA Tour) are now available on Golf Predictor. It's the last week of the Desert Swing (for now!) on the European PGA Tour and a strong field, including four of the top five in the world, has been somehow lured to Saudi Arabia for the inaugural event! Meanwhile, the US PGA Tour has made the short hop from California to Arizona, where the raucous fans can cheer on a quality field, with seven of the top twenty in the world rankings teeing it up!

2019 - Week 4 Winners

Bryson DeChambeau (ranked 1st by Golf Predictor) won the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on the European PGA Tour. The 25 year old American kept his impressive recent winning run going by winning his first European Tour tour title in Dubai. Leading by a shot overnight, DeChambeau came out of the blocks fast with three opening birdies and never let up in a fine closing round of 64 (-8). That allowed him to cruise to a seven shot victory over Matt Wallace. DeChambeau was our top ranked player and including the winner, we had a solid eleven of the top sixteen (11/19) in total.

Justin Rose (ranked 1st by Golf Predictor) won the Farmers Insurance Open on the US PGA Tour. The promising 38 year old Englishman won his tenth tour title with an impressive display at Torrey Pines. Rose entered Sunday with a three shot lead and despite a late surge by Adam Scott, was never seriously challenged, winning by two shots in the end. His exhibition of front running cemented his status as world number one. Rose was our top ranked player and we had twelve of the top twenty plus ties (12/24) in total.

2019 - Week 4 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the Omega Dubai Desert Classic (European PGA Tour) and the Farmers Insurance Open (US PGA Tour) are now available on Golf Predictor. The European Tour stays in the UAE this week, where the action moves to Dubai with American Bryson DeChambeau headlining the field. Meanwhile, there is a strong field in California, where twelve of the top twenty in the world are teeing it up at Torrey Pines. However, all eyes will be once again on Tiger Woods, who's making his 2019 debut on a course where he has had tremendous success in the past.

2019 - Week 3 Winners

Shane Lowry (ranked 26th by Golf Predictor) won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on the European PGA Tour. The 31 year old Irish man won his fourth tour title during a topsy turvy last day in Abu Dhabi. Despite leading by three overnight, Lowry found himself four shots behind the charging Richard Sterne with seven holes to play. However, the South African tightened up and Lowry made some great clutch putts to stay in the hunt until the last, where a birdie sealed a one shot win. Our top ranked golfer, Dustin Johnson, finished strongly for tied sixteenth and we had nine of the top sixteen plus ties (9/21) in total.

Adam Long (ranked 138th by Golf Predictor) won the Desert Classic on the US PGA Tour. The 31 year old rookie and rank outsider won his first tour title in a final day duel with seasoned pros Phil Mickelson and Adam Hadwin. Long hung in there on the back nine Sunday with a few chip ins and arrived on the final tee tied with his two more illustrious competitors. Despite having the worse lie by some margin, he hit a great approach from a hanging lie to set up the winning birdie. Our top ranked golfer, word number one Justin Rose, finished in tied 34th in the first event with his new clubs. Overall, in a birdie fest where most of the bigger names failed to perform, we had only had eight of the top eighteen plus ties (8/27) in total.

More Cosmetic Changes to Data Panels on Golf Predictor

Old look panels

New look panels

Further to this post, I have made some further cosmetic updates to most of the data panels on Golf Predictor. As you can see above, the text in the panels has been made bigger. The labels have also been bolded, the background lightened and a different font has been applied for increased legibility. These changes primarily affect wider screens - smaller devices in particular are not affected by these changes.

I trust you will agree that this is another small improvement. Just another way to make Golf Predictor a little better! 

2019 - Week 3 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship (European PGA Tour) and the Desert Classic (US PGA Tour) are now available on Golf Predictor. It's the first event of the new year on the European Tour and once again, several big names have been lured to the Middle East. Big hitting Americans Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson are headlining the event and they have a strong cast of Europeans chomping at the bit to get going in 2019! Meanwhile, the US PGA Tour makes its 2019 debut on the mainland at La Quinta. All eyes at the annual birdie fest will probably be on world number one Justin Rose and defending champion Jon Rahm.

2019 - Week 2 Winner

In the first full field event of the year on the US PGA Tour, Matt Kuchar (ranked 7th by Golf Predictor) won the Sony Open in Hawaii. After waiting four and a half years for his eight career win in November, the 40 year old American won for the second time in two months in Hawaii. After opening with a pair of 63s, Kuchar closed with a pair of 66s to win by four shots from Andrew Putnam. Kuchar didn't have it all his own way as he actually lost the lead to Putnam after a shaky start on Sunday. However, he bounced back with a strong back nine to win comfortably in the end. Our top ranked player, Justin Thomas, finished in tied 16th and we had only six of the top sixteen plus ties (6/19) in total as the field brushed off the Christmas cobwebs!

There was no event on the European Tour this week. 

More Field Spider/Radar Charts Added to Golf Predictor

Field Comparison for the Sony Open with new metric DK Ave Pts/Game selected and Danny Lee hovered over.

Further to this post from a few years ago, I am pleased to announce twelve new field comparison spider/radar/star charts to Golf Predictor. Like before, these new charts allow you to see at a glance which golfers have the best (or worst!) values in the metric of your choosing. The list of new charts is as follows:

1. Spider chart of world rankings for the field.
2. Spider chart of DraftKings salary for the field.
3. Spider chart of DraftKings average points/game for the field.
4. Spider chart of PlayON salary for the field.
5. Spider chart of PlayON average points/game for the field.
6. Spider chart of performance likelihood for the field.
7. Spider chart of cut streak for the field.
8. Spider chart of winless streak for the field.
9. Spider chart of wins in current season for the field.
10. Spider chart of wins in last twelve similar events for the field.
11. Spider chart of top tens in current seasons for the field. 
12. Spider chart of top tens in last twelve similar events for the field. 

These charts are available from the same Metric drop down box as the original nine charts on the chart page, linked to on the main Rankings page (Predictions menu). Because of the new metrics added to the chart page, this chart link has also been added to the Rankings (Streaks), Rankings (DraftKings) and Rankings (PlayOn) pages and renamed (see note one below). Clicking on this chart link on any of these pages will display a chart similar to above, which shows the DraftKings average points per game for the 2019 Sony open in Hawaii Field. As you can see, outliers (both good and bad!) can now be easily spotted at a a glance.

This brings the number of field comparison charts on this page to 21 and the total number of charts on Golf Predictor up to 587. Some notes on these new charts (similar to referenced post above):

1. I have renamed the link to this chart at its original location on the main Rankings page from Compare Form (Spider)" to "Compare Field (Spider)" as there is now a wider rang of metrics available.
2. The nearer the points are to the centre of the chart, the lower the value is.
3. Hovering over a point on the chart will show the golfer's name, his value in the metric, his GP Rank and another statistic, if relevant. This is shown above for Danny Lee, who is one of the golfers in the field with the largest number of average points per game.
4. The chart is ordered by GP Rank, with the top ranked golfer who is Justin Thomas in the chart above (not labelled, see next note) in the twelve o'clock position. As can be seen above, this means the values will tend to be better in the upper right quadrant (higher ranked golfers) and worse in the upper left quadrant (lower ranked golfers).
5. Due to the large number of golfers typically shown on these new charts is large, it is not possible to show the labels for each golfer in the field for legibility reasons. Therefore, the labels are shown for every n golfers, where n depends on the number of golfers displayed. This value varied from every golfer to every sixth golfer. For example, the chart above with 128 golfers shows the label for every fourth golfer.
6. Also for legibility purposes, golfer names are truncated if their surname is too long. This is shown above for O(llie) Schniederjans.
7. Golfers with no value for the metric are excluded from the chart and are listed underneath instead. These zero values are also excluded from the average field value shown.
8. You may have to reload a page (press F5 on Windows) to see the new chart links. 
9. I wanted to add strokes gained and round scores radar/spider charts too, but due to charting limitations, this was not possible. I can only vary the maximum value of the charts, not the minimum (zero). This makes plotting negative values (possible with strokes gained) or very similar values (round averages) infeasible (and I tried!). 
10. Depending on the values, some of these new charts (e.g. the streak ones) may be difficult to read for all golfers due to the scale. Unfortunately, I can't do much about that, but you will still be able to see most of the values easily, as smaller ones are the ones that suffer the most.

I trust you will find these new charts useful for quickly spotting good picks for upcoming tournaments. As with the existing field comparison charts, you must be subscribed to Golf Predictor to see these great charts. So, sign up today to Golf Predictor, the best golf statistics site!

2019 - Week 2 Predictions/Statistics Online

The predictions and statistics for this week, the Sony Open in Hawaii (US PGA Tour), are now available on Golf Predictor. It's the second leg of the Hawaiian swing and the first full field event on the US PGA Tour in 2019. A pretty strong field has gathered again this year with eight of the top twenty five in the world teeing it up at Waialae.
  
There is no event on the European Tour this week. 

2019 - Week 1 Winner

Xander Schauffele (ranked 13th by Golf Predictor) won the Sentry Tournament of Champions. The 25 year old American won his fourth tour title with an amazing final day performance in Hawaii. Trailing Gary Woodland by five shots overnight, Schauffele opened with a bogey, but still shot 62 (-11) to pip the overnight leader by a single shot. Our top ranked golfer, defending champion Dustin Johnson, finished well for tied 4th and we had ten of the top fourteen plus ties (10/15) in this restricted field event.

There was no event on the European Tour this week.