McIlroy Marches On

Rory McIlroy continued his impressive American debut in the WGC - Accenture Match Play Championship yesterday. McIlroy easily defeated Tim Clark, who seemed to have shot his bolt against Tiger Woods in the previous round. McIlroy now faces Australian Geoff Ogilvy in the quarter finals, the highest ranked player left in the field.

Ernie Els, something of a match play specialist, also progressed in what has been a disappointing season for him to date. Phil Mickelson bit the dust though, falling to Stewart Cink in what seemed to be a battle between two players who didn't want to win at one point!

Paul Casey looked very impressive in his win against Swede Peter Hanson as did his compatriot Ross Fisher in his victory over Jim Furyk. As the only Europeans left in the event, we here at the ever partisan Golf Predictor hope one of the English men or McIlroy wins on Sunday!

The Fairytale Is Over!

Tim Clark played bogey free golf to end the fairy tale return of Tiger Woods. Clark closed out the match on the 16th to not only deny Woods a triumphant return, but also break NBC's heart. Now the TV network will have a job to interest the American public in the weekend action! Brief highlights of the match are available here:



Tiger discusses his defeat here:



Elsewhere, it was a great day for the English golfers in the field, with five out of six progressing to the third round. The only causality, Lee Westwood, didn't go out without a fight. He lost to Stewart Cink in the longest match of the week thus far, finishing on the 23rd hole. We here at Golf Predictor hope they keep the flag flying for Europe!

Normal Service Resumed for Tiger!

It's like he never was away! Tiger Woods got a fantastic reception on the first tee and duly delivered for his legions of adoring fans. Despite a slight wobble midway through his round, Woods defeated Australian Brendan Jones 3&2 in the first round of the WGC - Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona yesterday. You can see a brief summary here:



Tiger's reaction to his comeback is here:



Elsewhere, Padraig Harrington's erratic and disappointing season continued as he bombed out, defeated by Pat Perez. His best mate(!) Sergio Garcia was another big European casualty, losing to Charl Schwartzel. It was a good day overall for the Americans with 13 out of 17 progressing, including Phil Mickelson who squeezed through against Angel Cabrera on the 19th. We here at Golf Predictor are looking forward to the rest of the week.

Compare Page Enhanced

We have significantly enhanced the 'Compare Golfers' page on the "Stats Analysis" menu in the member section of Golf Predictor. As shown on the screenshot above, the individual drop down boxes for each golfer are gone and the golfers are now selected from a single multi-select list box. This makes the page quicker to load and allows more golfers to be compared without a significant performance hit.

As a result, you can now compare the statistics for up to 10 golfers simultaneously (up from 3). As before, the golfer names are not displayed in the table due to space constraints. However, now you can hover over the golfer ID in the table (similar to the hover feature on our charts) and get the golfer name and other relevant data not in the table. This is shown for Aaron Baddeley in the image above. Clicking on the golfer name in the pop up hover text is equivalent to clicking on the ID in the table.

We hope that you find these enhancements useful. The timing is perfect as this page can be used to great effect for the WGC - Accenture Match Play Championship this week.

Tiger Vs Phil

Hear the guys at ESPN have a ding-dong over Tiger vs Phil:



Golf Predictor still gives Tiger the clear edge, despite his long absence. Mickleson has played poorly this season, despite winning last week (and he did his best to throw that away too). It's all down to how Tiger's knee holds up and how quickly he shakes off the competitive rustiness.

2009 - Week 13 Predictions Online

We have published the predictions for week 13 of the 2009 season. This week 13 is not lucky for Golf Predictor as there are three tournaments to cover! They are the Enjoy Jakarta Indonesia Open ('European' PGA Tour), the Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun (US PGA Tour) and the WGC -Accenture Match Play Championship (US/European PGA Tours). Of course, all eyes will be on the Accenture Match Play where all the top players will be competing. And, oh, some guy called Tiger Woods is teeing up there for the first time in a while! While Golf Predictor is designed for stroke play events, we put this event (the first match play event since we went live last spring) through our wringer to see what came out. It certainly has an impressive field strength chart!

The list of pre-2004 champions in the WGC -Accenture Match Play Championship (Golf Predictor uses the results from the previous 5 years) includes Tiger Woods (2003), Kevin Sutherland (2002) and Steve Stricker (2001). The other two events this week are relatively new and have no pre-2004 champions.

Phil's Winning Tools!

If you want to know what Phil Mickelson won with yesterday at the Northern Trust Open, check out this US PGA Tour video:



Interestingly, he keeps a few accoutrements in his bag to help with his putting and alignment. And I thought it was just hapless hackers like the Golf Predictor Guru who used such gizmos!

2009 - Week 12 Betting Performance

We had a couple of little punts here at Golf Predictor last week. We went for a top ten finish for Anthony Wall in the Johnnie Walker Classic. He had seven top tens in his last twelve similar events, but he let us down on this occasion. However, we had the same bet on former champion Rory Sabbatini in the Northern Trust Open and he came in at 4/1. He may not be the most likeable chap on tour, but we like him now!

2009 - Week 12 Winners

At the Johnnie Walker Classic in Australia, US Amateur champion Danny Lee (ranked 111th by Golf Predictor) became the youngest ever winner on the European PGA Tour. The 18 year old sealed his historic win with an impressive birdie at the last for a closing 67 and a one shot victory. The South Korean born New Zealander is only the second amateur winner on the European Tour, joining Pablo Martin who won the 2007 Estoril Open de Portugal. Unfortunately, Lee couldn't claim any of the €235,892 prize money for first place, but I'm sure he's happy with just the prestige of winning! There's no need to feel sorry for him, however. He's bound to win loads of cash when he turns pro after the Masters (especially if he lives up to his own high expectations!). Our top pick, Camilo Villegas, tanked and missed the cut but we had Lee Westwood and Paul Casey in the top ten.

On the US Tour, Phil Mickleson (ranked 2nd by Golf Predictor) put his terrible start to the season behind him to retain his Northern Trust Open title. He can thank the first hole at the Riviera Country Club for his roller coaster victory (63, 72, 62, 72), as he played it in seven under par over the week. Despite his third straight opening eagle, Mickleson threw away his then five shot lead and needed 2 birdies and a great up and down in the last 3 holes to leapfrog Steve Stricker (ranked 31st). Young Japanese sensation Ishikawa-san unfortunately missed the cut, but no doubt the experience will stand to him. Two veteran former champions, Fred Couples and Mark Calcavecchia, had great weeks, both finishing in the top ten. Our top pick, Kenny Perry, finished tied 17th and we also had Luke Donald and K.J. Choi in the top eleven.

Now that Mickleson has turned his season around, will other big guns Harrington, Els or Singh be able to do likewise? In fairness, Vijay was injured, but all three won't find it any easier with a certain Tiger Woods back on the prowl!

The Saviour Returns, Part Deux!

This time, Golf Predictor brings you (the link to) the story from the horse's mouth: