More Statistics added to 'Golfer' Page on Golf Predictor

Further to the recent enhancements to the same page, we are happy to announce the addition of more statistics to the 'Golfer' page in the member section of Golf Predictor (accessible mainly from the 'View Options/Golfers' menu option). As shown in the screenshot for Paul Casey above, you can now view career statistics (since 2003) for each golfer*.

Similar to some of the statistics available for golfers participating in tournaments (Prediction Data pages), you can now see the number of tournaments played, cuts missed, wins, top ten finishes, best finish, worst finish, average finish and standard deviation for each golfer in the database.

Looking at Tiger Woods' page, it really shows how brilliant he is. To have an average finishing position of 10 across more than 6 years and 106 tournaments is almost unbelievable. Finishing in the top ten of 73% of your tournaments in that time span isn't too shabby either! You can now check the performance of your favourite player on the site. Just another way to make Golf Predictor even better!


*You may to reload/refresh the page in your browser to see these new statistics.

2009 Masters Day 1 - The Magic Returns

After a few years of attritional golf, the first day of the 2009 Masters was a welcome return to exciting action. A perfect day for golf ,coupled with receptive greens and generous pin positions helped a record 38 players beat par. Foremost among them was Chad Campbell, who build on his record breaking five birdie start to reach -9 after 16 holes. With at least a share of the course record in sight, Campbell unfortunately stumbled on the final two holes to fall back to "only" a 65. It was still good enough for the outright lead, by one shot from the blemish free Jim Furyk and Hunter Mahan, who also bogeyed the last.

Elsewhere, Tiger Woods also finished with a dropped shot to keep his record of never breaking 70 on the opening day intact. He's well in contention on -2, as is Padraig Harrington who is one shot better off after a promising 69. Not so good for Paul Casey (72), Phil Mickelson (73) or Sergio Garcia (73), none of whom were happy in their post-round interviews. The round of the day was arguably veteran Larry Mize who turned back the clock with a splendid 67. Many former champions acquitted themselves well, including, thankfully, Gary Player who finished with a respectable 78. Considering that huge hitting Spaniard Alvaro Quiros (Garcia) shot the same score, it was a sterling effort from the diminutive South African legend.

More information on the first day's play (including real time coverage) is available on the Golf Predictor Twitter feed (see panel on the right) and you can see highlights here:

Tournaments Played Charts Added to Golf Predictor

We have added four new charts to Golf Predictor to show which golfers have played the most tournaments in a season. This charts are available from the "Season History" and "Season Stats" pages on the "Stats Analysis" menu in the member section. The chart on the former page shows the golfers who have played the most events in the current season up to the selected event. The three new charts on the "Season Stats" page show the golfers who have played the most events with at least one on the US PGA Tour, the European PGA Tour or any tour in any completed season since 2003.

The screenshot above shows the chart for those golfers who played at least once on the 2007 US PGA Tour season. Of all the players, Daniel Chopra was the busiest with 37 events that year. As usual, hovering over a bar gives more information, as shown above. This brings the total number of charts on the site up to 166. These 4 new charts are only available to subscribers so sign up today to get the most out of Golf Predictor, the premier US & European PGA Tour statistics site.

Legendary Player in His Last Major

As mentioned on the Golf Predictor Twitter feed, legend Gary Player to make his 52nd consecutive and last appearance at Augusta this year. At 73, his age is finally getting the better of him and he is going to stick with the Champions Tour for the next 60 years! Hear the great man himself:

2009 US Masters Opinions

Get Andy North's thoughts on who has a chance to win the Masters this week (all player statistics on Golf Predictor), which also incredibly include Greg Norman as a potential winner:



Bob Harig, also of ESPN, has a better take on things:

2009 - Week 19 Prediction Online

We have published the prediction for week 18, The Masters (European/US PGA Tours). Exciting times as it's the first major of the year, held as usual on the hallowed turf of Augusta National. Will a resurgent Tiger dominate once again as he continues his comeback from injury? Will Padraig Harrington overcome his ropey form and capture the third leg of the Paddy Slam? Will Phil Mickleson put his horrendous week in Houston behind him? Will Paul Casey build on his success there? We'll soon see!

The list of pre-2004 champions in The Masters (Golf Predictor uses the results from the previous 5 years) is long as past champions are invited back for life. That has been curtailed in recent years thanks mainly to the increased length and severity of the course. However, legend Gary Player, probably the fittest septuagenarian on the planet, has racked up even more air miles and is back for another go. Golf Predictor hopes that the Black Knight acquits himself well in what amazingly is his 52nd successive Masters appearance.

2009 - Week 18 Winners

Northern Ireland's Michael Hoey (ranked 42nd by Golf Predictor) held his nerve to take his maiden European PGA Tour victory at the Open de Portugal. After closing with a superb 66 (-5), Hoey saw off Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (ranked 2nd) in a tense play-off at the third extra hole. The poor weather and relatively weak field made it a difficult event to predict. Our top pick, Anders Hansen, missed the cut but we had two of the top five.

The wind also played havoc on the US PGA Tour (see video below) where Paul Casey (ranked 7th by Golf Predictor) won his second title of the season and first in America. Casey also needed a play-off, where he defeated J.B. Holmes (ranked 90th) on the first extra hole. The three hour wait for the play-off did Holmes no favours as he hooked his drive on the tough 18th into the water. Unfortunately, this meant he narrowly missed out on a late berth in the Masters. Our top pick, Phil Mickelson, was blown away in the wind and missed the cut but we also had Geoff Ogilvy in the top six plus ties.

Flags added to Golf Predictor

We have cosmetically enhanced most pages in the member section of Golf Predictor with the addition of flag graphics. These small graphics represent the nationality of each golfer and adds some colour to Golf Predictor! The screenshot above shows how the main prediction page now looks. Hovering over an unfamiliar flag will reveal the 3 letter country code. Golf Predictor uses the IOC country codes which are listed here, should you still be flummoxed!

All 200+ images have been optimised by us for web display, resulting in a massive reduction in file size (of the order of 80-85%). Most of the images are less than half a kilobyte, so unless you're on a really old dial up connection, performance shouldn't suffer when these images are downloaded into your browser cache. Note that some column headers have had to be renamed in order to fit the flag column in the table. The key tables have been updated accordingly on the affected pages.

We have tested the new flag images on FireFox 3.08, IE 8, Opera 9.64, Chrome and Safari 3.1.2 (Windows). As usual, we have had to compromise slightly in some instances for maximum cross browser compatibility. While not affecting functionality, we think these flags add to the visual appeal of the site. We hope that you agree!

Shell Houston Open - Memorable Moments

Just to whet your appetite for this week's Shell Houston Open (covered by Golf Predictor), here are some memorable moments from previous years. Some of these moments are poignant but most show that the event seems to suit golfers from down under!

2009 - Week 18 Predictions Updated

We have had to run the predictions for this week's tournaments again. This was done for 2 reasons:

1. The entry lists had changed for both events, with significant changes to the US PGA Tour event (Shell Houston Open).
2. More importantly, we noticed that in the above tournament, Phil Mickleson's ranking was unreasonably lower than Sergio Garcia's after the initial run. Upon investigation, a minor discrepancy related to last week's fix was discovered in our ranking algorithm.
   

This has now been corrected and the new ranking lists are now online. This should make the Golf Predictor rankings better in the future and we apologise for any inconvenience caused. Note that you may have to reload/refresh the prediction pages to see the new rankings.