Prediction Update for Week 37, 2008

We have had to re-run the prediction engine for this week's tournaments to fix a minor discrepancy. This should result in rankings that are a little more accurate. Note that you may have to refresh the prediction pages to see the updating rankings. Golf Predictor apologises for any inconvenience caused.

New Course Length Charts

We are happy to announce the addition of 4 more new charts to Golf Predictor. This new functionality brings the number of charts on the site to 41! These new charts are:

1. Longest courses used in a given season.
2. Shortest courses used in a given season.
3. Longest courses in the database.
4. Shortest courses in the database.

These charts are accessible from the Member section of Golf Predictor. Charts 1 & 2 are viewable on the "View Options - Tourn. Stats" page, while charts 3 & 4 are viewable on the "View Options - Courses" page.

The screen shot above shows the longest courses used in the 2008 season. As usual, hovering over a bar shows additional information. The longest course indicated above, the 7,746 monster Conservatory Course at the Ginn Hammock Beach Resort, may not play to its full yardage. We will update the database when the tournament information becomes available. Note that charts 3 & 4 cover all courses in our system. Currently this includes all 2008 courses and all related courses from the 2003 season on.

Only subscribers can view these new charts. So, sign up today and enjoy the full functionality of Golf Predictor, the premium professional golf statistics site.

2008 - Week 37 Predictions Now Online

We have published the predictions for week 37, the WGC - Bridgestone Invitational (both tours) and the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open (US). With the 6 time winner, Tiger Woods, being missing, the WGC event is wide open this year for the first time in its 10 year history. In the other event this week, the weaker Reno-Tahoe Open has gone for the "girly gimmick" to boost ticket sales and invited Michelle Wie to tee it up. She hasn't exactly covered herself with glory on the men's tour (or women's tour for that matter!) so let's hope she doesn't emulate that unfortunate amateur from last week's Russian Open! Unsurprisingly, she is rated joint lowest by Golf Predictor to produce the goods this week, although this is primarily because she has no relevant statistics to speak of.

Competitors who were winners of the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open before 2003 (when Golf Predictor records commence) include Notah Begay III (1999) and Chris Riley (2002). The only man on the corresponding list for the WGC - Bridgestone Invitational is Craig Parry (2002).

2008 - Week 36 Winners

As with most tournaments with lowly ranked Golfers, the Russian Open turned out to be a hard one to forecast. Having said that, a former winner, Mikael Lundberg (ranked 9 by Golf Predictor) continued Swedish golfers' love of the event by coming through to reclaim the title. Interestingly, one poor Russian amateur finished 40 over after 2 rounds, including an almost unbelievable 99 on day one! He must be Putin's nephew to get a place in the field because I'd almost score better than that! I won't name him to spare him a few blushes, but I can't see how that is going to help his game or his confidence. On a more positive note, Joakim Bäckström bagged the most rare of birds, an albatross, on day 1 of the event. The only other one that I can recall in recent times is Graeme McDowell's in last year's Volvo Masters.

Meanwhile, Jim Furyk (ranked 1) failed to make it 3 titles in a row at the soggy RBS Canadian Open. Furyk finished in a tie for 14th this time, but well done to rookie Chez Reavie (ranked 87) for coming through to claim his maiden tour victory. We had Anthony Kim, Mike Weir and Sean O'Hair in the top 10.

Interestingly Greg Norman finished lower (tied 5th) in the British Seniors Open yesterday than in the British Open proper (tied 3rd). If he hadn't double bogeyed the 17th, it could have been better for Norman, but I guess "if" has been the story of his major career.

New Golfer Odds Comparison Page Added

We have added a handy odds comparison page for all members who like to have a flutter on golf tournaments. All members can view this new page, which is accessible from the "View Options" menu in the Member section of our site.

This new page compares the odds from a number of on-line bookmakers for the golfers in upcoming tournaments. The default page content includes the BBC golf news feed and you can select an event or a match up using the drop down lists. The screen shot above shows the odds for leading contenders in the RBS Canadian Open, this week's tournament on the US PGA Tour. It may take a few moments for the betting information to appear, so please be patient. You can click on the odds or the bookie graphic to go to the corresponding bookmaker site. You can toggle the odds format between decimal and fractional under the odds list.

We hope you find this new page useful. Note that the betting information comes from an external web site and Golf Predictor has no control over the contents or the layout.

News Widget Moved to Blog

We have moved the golf news widget from the home page of the Golf Predictor member section to the right hand side of this blog. This was done for 2 main reasons:

1. We believe that is the best location for such a widget.
2. The widget can cause annoying JavaScript errors in Internet Explorer 7 when incorporated into our site.
   

Using the widget, you can get all the latest golf news from respected sites around the web. Currently, the widget contains news feeds from Reuters, the BBC, the US PGA (US tour news) and the US PGA (European tour news).

Press the menu button on the top of the widget or use the arrows alongside it to select a feed (blank=Reuters). Click on a headline to read the full story.

British Open Footnote

As Padraig Harrington became Ireland's most successful ever golfer and joined a very illustrious group of golfers who retained the British Open, the tournament statistics show that he achieved it in the hardest event thus far this season.

Available from the 'View Options/Tourn. Stats' page on Golf Predictor, the data and charts show that the average round in the British Open was almost 5 over par, almost a full shot worse than the next hardest event (the South African Airways Open). The first round was the most brutal with the player average score of just below 6 over. A lot has been said of Tiger's absence, but he hasn't a good record in challenging conditions so I doubt even he would have outperformed the pride of Ireland!

New Course Par Chart

Closely related to chart 7 described here, we have added our 37th chart to Golf Predictor. This latest chart allows you to see the breakdown of course pars for all the courses listed in the database. This will allow you to get a quick visual indication of pars for courses used by the pros. It is no surprise to see that 72 is the most common par on championship courses, as shown in the screen shot above. Most courses used from 2003 onwards on the US PGA and the European PGA tours have been entered into our system. The outstanding ones are due to be added very shortly.

Any member can view this latest chart, which is accessible from the "View Options - Courses" screen in the Member section.

2008 - Week 36 Predictions Now Online

We have published the predictions for week 36 - the Inteco Russian Open Golf Championship (Europe) and the RBS Canadian Open (US). The former has a pretty weak field (see the "Field Strength" chart) but there are some pretty big guns teeing it up in Canada this week.

Competitors who were winners of the Canadian Open before 2003 (when Golf Predictor records commence) include Dudley Hart (1996), Billy Andrade (1998) and Scott Verplank (2001). The corresponding list for the Russian Open is Iain Pyman (1999 & 2002) and Jamie Donaldson (2001).

2008 - Week 35 Winners

While Padraig Harrington (ranked 12 by Golf Predictor) was a most worthy winner of the British Open, almost all of the highest echelon of golfers were blown away by the ferocious winds around Birkdale. Only Ernie Els (ranked 4) and unsurprisingly Robert Karlsson (ranked 10) performed well and ended up in a tie for seventh. Even then, they needed strong finishes to sneak back up the leaderboard. That high finish in a major catapulted Karlsson up one whole place on the world rankings (see here)! Interestingly enough, the next tier of golfers performed very well in The Open with 8 of the golfers ranked 11-20 by Golf Predictor finishing in the top 20.

Harrington's major victory makes it 6 wins this season (so far!) by 5 different Irish golfers - surely "our" best ever year on tour.

The much maligned Kenny Perry (ranked 1) failed to capitalise on a weak field and win again on the US tour at the US Bank Championship in Milwaukee. Despite being the highest world ranked player by a country mile, Perry could only finish 6th (which is far better than Paul McGinley did in a similar situation in the St. Omer Open) in an event won by Swede, Richard S Johnson (ranked 68). Johnson capped off a fine display with an impressive wood of his own (not quite as good as Harrington's on 17 though!) to set up the winning tap-in birdie on 18. Not counting Heath Slocum, who was actually a late alternate for the British Open, we also had Joe Ogilvie, Dean Wilson and Chad Campbell in the top 6 and ties.