2009 - Week 3 Winner

Robert Allenby (ranked 1st by Golf Predictor) will rue the fact that he got only 1 albatross all week as he came up 3 shots short in the Sportsbet Australian Masters! In the end, he finished in third place as the third event of the 2009 European Tour season was won by compatriot Rod Pampling (ranked 4th). Pampling took the title after a play-off with yet another Aussie, Marcus Fraser (ranked 15th).

We also had Alexander Noren and Tim Clark highly ranked as 4 out of the Golf Predictor top 6 finished in the top 4 and ties.

Fedex Cup Tweaked (Again)

As part of ongoing attempts to make the Fedex Cup even remotely interesting, the US PGA Tour have announced more changes to the rules. After the first year when Tiger Woods won so often, he could choose to miss an event (or two) and still stroll home victorious, they changed the rules. Last season (2008), the second year of the Fedex Cup, also ended with a whimper when Vijay Singh won the first 2 play-off events and only had to turn up at East Lake to win the big prize in the Tour Championship. Obviously, something else needed to be done.

That something is to reset the points at the beginning of the Tour Championship, not at the beginning of the play-offs. This is a good idea as all 30 competitors should at least have a mathematical chance of winning. It also will mean that double major winners also make the tour flagship event, unlike last season when Harrington missed out due to poor performances in the first two play-off events.

If this latest tinkering doesn't work and the Race to Dubai takes off straight away this season (2009) on the European Tour, it could make things rather interesting for the US PGA Tour.

2009 Tournaments in System

After a mammoth updating task, we are happy to announce that all the finalised 2009 US and European PGA Tour events have been entered into Golf Predictor. In addition to browsing the new tournaments using the 3 options in the 'Tournaments' page, you can now view the new tournament locations using Google Maps on the 'Tournament Locations' page. You can also see the new course information and charts on the 'Tournament Stats' and 'Courses' pages. All these pages are available from the 'View Options' menu in the Golf Predictor Member section.

The Fall Series on the US PGA Tour has yet to be finalised. On the European PGA Tour, 10 tournaments have to be finalised, either in terms of the host course or the tournament itself. When this data becomes available, we will of course update our system.

2009 - Week 3 Prediction Online

We have published the predictions for the third week of the 2009 golfing season, the Sportsbet Australian Masters (European PGA Tour). Given the location and time of year, it's not surprising that it's not the strongest field, with a full third of the field not in the top 1000 in the world rankings. However, Adam Scott aside, at least the Aussies are out in force!

This is only the third year that this event has been part of the European tour, so all past champions are accounted for in our statistics analysis (Golf Predictor uses the results from the previous 5 years).

2009 - Week 2 Winner

After a one week break, the new 2009 European Tour season resumed with the UBS Hong Kong Open. Victory went to Lin Wen-Tang (ranked 14th by Golf Predictor) after a brilliant three way play-off with Rory McIlroy (ranked 17th) and Francesco Molinari (ranked 9th). Lin birdied the 18th twice (including once with a miracle shot from the trees) in the play-off to deny McIlroy after Molinari had succumbed at the first extra hole. It's McIlroy's second play off defeat in recent months but surely it's only a matter of time until his maiden victory.

Performance of the week has to go to Jason Hak, who at 14 years old became the youngest person ever to make the cut at a European tour event. Any guy who can keep up with the big boys at that tender age and erase Sergio Garcia from the record books is well worth keeping an eye on. Both Monty and Jon Daly showed a welcome return to form, with Daly finishing in a highly respectable tie for 17th after a sparkling final round of 62. Our top pick, defending champion Miguel Angel Jimenez, also finished strongly with a 62. However, he had left himself too much to do and he finished in a tie for 24th place. We also had Oliver Wilson, Jeev Milkha Singh and Graeme McDowell in the top 12.

Seve Getting Better, Daly Down Under

Great news as Seve appears to be on the long road to recovery. He was removed from the intensive care ward at his Spanish hospital, which is a good start.

John Daly is ending his tumultuous season down in Australia, another place where he has courted controversy in the past (surprise, surprise!). Leaving aside him throwing his ball and putter in a lake and not signing his card when playing a week after the death of his mother in 2002, Golf Predictor's favourite Daly down under moment was in the 1997 Heineken Classic. He fired an 83 in the third round and then blazed through the fourth round in an amazing 2 hours and 10 minutes! The organisers were not best pleased as for some reason they didn't think they got value for money for their large appearance fee!

2009 Week 2 Prediction Online

We have published the prediction for the second week of the 2009 golfing season, the UBS Hong Kong Open (European PGA Tour). While the field isn't quite as strong as that for the season opener (or even the Barclays Singapore Open last week), it's not a bad line up either, featuring Miguel Angel Jimenez back defending his title.

Jose Maria Olazabal (2002) is the only past champion competing not included in our statistics analysis (Golf Predictor uses the results from the previous 5 years).

Golf Course Charts Updated

As part of the Tournament Stats page amendments, we have also broken down the 3 charts previously available on the "View Options/Courses" page in the member section of Golf Predictor by tour. You can now choose to see the same 3 chart types for the European or US tour separately.

This effectively adds 3 new charts to Golf Predictor, bringing the total in the system up to 82. Interestingly, these new charts show that there are a lot more par 72 courses and far less par 70 courses on the European tour than the US tour.

Tournament Stats Page Now Sortable by Tour

In order to enforce consistency through out the member section of Golf Predictor, we have amended the Tournament Stats page (View Options Menu) to enable tour selection. Using the new dropdown list, you can now choose to see European or US tournament statistics.

The 9 different chart types available on this page have also been updated to show data for the selected tour. This effectively adds 18 new charts to Golf Predictor (there are now 9 for the US tour and 9 for the European tour), bringing the total in the system up to 79.

2008 US PGA Tour Stats

There are lots of interesting stats in the 2008 round up on the US PGA Tour web site. This includes the longest putt, the longest drive and the most strokes taken on a par 3/4/5 during the season.

My favourite statistics come from the list of the oddest 10 stats:

1. The shortest hitter on tour (Corey Pavin) has a lower scoring average than the longest (Bubba Watson), despite giving up an average of 53.7 yards per drive. When he finally gets to the green, Pavin has the lowest number of putts per round while Watson is 182nd. If that's not proof of "driving for show and putting for dough", I don't know what is!
2. Further proof comes with the fact that of the 36 different 2008 winners, 15 had their best putting week when they won, 11 had their best greens in regulation performance while just 6 had their top driving distance week.
3. Hale Irwin has walked over 25,000 miles on the PGA and Champions' Tours since 1968 - more than enough to circumnavigate the globe at the equator!
4. Bob Tway finished first on tour in putting in regulation, third in birdie average, fourth in the all-around category and 32nd in scoring but still managed to finish 132nd on the money list.