2008 - Week 42 Winners

Rory McIlroy disappointingly failed to add to Ireland's spectacular golfing year when he practically threw away the Omega European Masters in Switzerland. McIlroy squandered his overnight 4 shot lead early on and then missed a short putt on 18 to seal victory. He missed a further chance on the first extra hole before missing a tiddler on the next to hand a maiden European tour victory to Jean-François Lucquin (ranked 40th by Golf Predictor). That victory gave France its second successive tour victory and prompted the reappearance of the famous French celebrations! Our top pick, Miguel Angel Jimenez (who also missed a slew of short putts), finished tied for 3rd, as did Christian Cevaer whom we also had in the top 10.

Padraig Harrington's disappointing Fedex Cup came to an end at the BMW Championship, but at least he made the cut this time!* Camilo Villegas (ranked 15th) built on his recent good form to finally clinch his maiden PGA Tour victory. The "most ripped man in golf" moved to a distant second in the Fedex Cup race behind Vijay Singh with his wire to wire victory. The big guns didn't perform all that well, but we had Steve Stricker, K.J. Choi and Jim Furyk in the top 10. Our top pick and currently top ranked competing golfer in the world, Phil Mickelson, continued his unspectacular streak with a tie for 17th place.

*There was no cut!

Google Chrome and Apple Safari Browser Compatibility

We here at Golf Predictor downloaded the beta release of the new Google Chrome browser to see how our site looked in it. To our surprise, our menus didn't display correctly, thereby rendering Golf Predictor practically unusable to such browser users. As Chrome is based on the same open source project as the Apple Safari browser, we then downloaded that only to find the same problem. As Google are shamelessly plugging this new high speed, bloat free browser on many of its web sites, we figured we better fix this problem pronto!

Oh, the joy of multiple browser compatibility! The reason why the menus didn't render correctly is a known issue and not a programming error as such (perish the thought!). In any event, the workaround was surprisingly complex, but we persevered. Now, the menus in Safari and Chrome work in a similar manner to those in the other supported browsers. We apologise to any users of Safari who had problems accessing our site in the past.

2008 - Top 5 Shortest Courses on the European PGA Tour

Based on the course information in Golf Predictor, these were the shortest courses used on the European PGA Tour in the 2008 season:

1. Kennemar G & CC (KLM Open) - 6626 yards
2. Hong Kong GC (UBS Hong Kong Open) - 6703 yards
3. Santo de Serra (Madeira Islands Open) - 6826 yards
4. Arlandastad GC (SAS Masters) - 6835 yards,
5. Crans-sur-Sierre GC (Omega European Masters) - 6857 yards
   

Interestingly, the short courses also seemed to be longer in the US than 'Europe'*! You can get more detailed information by looking at the 'Shortest Courses' chart on the 'View Options/Tourn. Stats' page (Euro Tour, 2008 season) in the member section of Golf Predictor. Click on the "Lists" category opposite to see more such lists.

The 2009 list is also available.


*The European Tour actually hosts tournaments on 4 continents.

2008 - Top 5 Shortest Courses on the US PGA Tour

Based on the course information in Golf Predictor, these were the shortest courses used on the US PGA Tour in the 2008 season:

1. Brown Deer Park GC (US Bank Championship in Milwaukee) - 6759 yards
   
2. Pebble Beach Golf Links (AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am) - 6816 yards
3. TPC River Highlands (Travelers Championship) - 6820 yards
4. Le Cantera (Valero Texas Open) - 6896 yards
5. El Camaleon GC (Mayakoba Golf Classic) - 6923 yards

Interestingly, the short courses also seemed to be longer in the US than 'Europe'* in the 2008 season! You can get more detailed information by looking at the 'Shortest Courses' chart on the 'View Options/Tourn. Stats' page (US Tour, 2008 Season) in the member section of Golf Predictor. Click on the "Lists" category opposite to see more such lists.

The 2009 list is also available.


*The European Tour actually hosts tournaments on 4 continents.

2008 - Top 5 Longest Courses on the European PGA Tour

Based on the course information in Golf Predictor, these were the longest courses used on the European PGA Tour in the 2008 season:

1. Royal Johannesburg and Kensington GC (Joburg Open) - 7589 yards
2. Torrey Pines, South Course (US Open) - 7569 yards
3. Abu Dhabi GC (Abu Dhabi Golf Championship) - 7500 yards
4. Adare Manor Hotel & Golf Resort (Irish Open) - 7453 yards
5. Augusta National GC (The Masters) - 7445 yards

Interestingly, the long courses seemed to be longer in the US than 'Europe'*! Indeed 2 of the courses above are major venues in the US. You can get more detailed information by looking at the 'Longest Courses' chart on the 'View Options/Tourn. Stats' page (Euro Tour, 2008 Season) in the member section of Golf Predictor. Click on the "Lists" category opposite to see more such lists.

The 2009 list is also available.


*The European Tour actually hosts tournaments on 4 continents.

2008 - Top 5 Longest Courses on the US PGA Tour

Based on the course information in Golf Predictor, these were the longest courses used on the US PGA Tour:

1. Ginn Hammock Beach Resort, Conservatory Course (Ginn sur Mer Classic) - 7663 yards
2. Torrey Pines, South Course (US Open/Buick Invitational) - 7569 yards
3. Trump International Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Open) - 7569 yards
4. Walt Disney Word Resort, Magnolia GC (Children's Miracle Network Classic) - 7516 yards
5. Atunyote GC at Turning Stone Resort (Turning Stone Resort Championship) - 7482 yards

Interestingly, the long courses seemed to be longer in the US than 'Europe'*! You can get more detailed information by looking at the 'Longest Courses' chart on the 'View Options/Tourn. Stats' page (US Tour, 2008 Season) in the member section of Golf Predictor. Click on the "Lists" category opposite to see more such lists.

The 2009 list is also available.


*The European Tour actually hosts tournaments on 4 continents.

2008 - Week 42 Predictions Online

We have finally published the predictions for week 42, the BMW Championship (US) and the Omega European Open (Europe). Apologies for the delay, but we had to wait for the statistics to become available after the Monday finish on week 41.

Previous winners of the BMW Championship before 2003 (Golf Predictor includes results from the previous 5 years) competing this week include Jerry Kelly (2002), Robert Allenby (2000), Steve Stricker (1996) and Billy Mayfair (1995). The corresponding list for the Omega European Open is Ricardo Gonzales (2001), Eduardo Romero (1994, 2000) Sven Struver (1998) and Barry Lane (1993).

US Ryder Cup Wildcards

US Ryder Captain, Paul Azinger, announced the 4 wildcard picks for his team earlier today. Unlike his European counterpart, Azinger didn't have to put up with much hoopla prior to his selections. However, he had his own concerns, mainly that the US golfers in the running for a spot haven't been up to much lately. Things were so bad that he delayed his selection for 3 weeks in the forlorn hope that someone started to play well,

Azinger said he had help gathering the statistics and crunching the numbers for all the guys in the running for his pretty inexperienced team, but this had ended up confusing him. Paul, Paul, if only you had used Golf Predictor - we had all that done for you and presented in easy to digest graphs and tables!

In the end he went for Chad Campbell, Steve Stricker, Hunter Mahan and JB Holmes. Only Campbell having previous (losing) Ryder Cup experience and only the big hitting Holmes has won this year on tour. The biggest surprise among his 3 rookies, perhaps, was Hunter "Kunta Kinte" Mahon, given his 'slave' outburst a few weeks ago. Let's hope he throws his shackles off and has a great week in Kentucky!!

2008 - Week 41 Winners

Gregory Havrey (ranked 33 by Golf Predictor) didn't let all the Ryder Cup shenanigans distract him as he impressively held off the field to win the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles. Our top pick, Lee Westwood, finished 10th despite slating the greens at the Centenary course. We also had nine others in the top nineteen and ties.

Meanwhile, at the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston, Vijay Singh (ranked 2) increased his stranglehold on the Fedex Cup by winning his second play-off event in a row. Featuring an unbelievable putting display (featuring just 23 putts), the "dodgy" putter blew away the field with a fantastic closing 63 in difficult conditions on Monday. Apparently, convincing yourself that you are a great putter is the key! Our top pick, Phil Mickelson, failed to make the 3rd round cut, but we also had Sergio Garcia and Jim Furyk in the top 7.

2008 - Week 42 Predictions Delay

The second Fedex Cup play-off tournament, the Deutsche Bank Championship, is finishing today (Monday) which is Labor Day in the US. As a result, there will be a delay in publishing the predictions for the coming week's events, the BMW Championship (US) and the Omega European Masters.

As soon as the results and the latest statistics become available, we will run the prediction engine. However, it is unlikely to happen before tomorrow (Tuesday). The entry list for the next leg of the Fedex Cup play-offs (BMW Championship) is dependent on the outcome of the Deutsche Bank Championship and we expect a delay until that is finalised. Golf Predictor apologises for the delay which is beyond our control.