TOUR Championship Review

It is now time to review the picks for the TOUR Championship to see how the results turned out.

Here are the results of the Tour Outsider (my) picks.

Rank Player CLi Rank Earnings Rd4 Rd3 Rd2 Rd1 Actual 1 S Camilo Villegas 2.70 1 4 4 12 $1,260,000 2 S Vijay Singh 3.15 22 24 23 17 $127,400 3 S Jim Furyk 3.30 6 9 12 12 $238,000 4 S Hunter Mahan 5.05 17 20 28 21 $138,600 5 S Sergio Garcia 5.45 2 1 2 6 $756,000

A good week in that I had a 1st and 2nd finish with Villegas and Garcia. However, since Shedloski and I had 4 players the same, the difference will come down to the difference between Mahan and Campbell.

Here are the results of the Tour Insider (Dave Shedloski) picks.

• 1 Vijay Singh 22 | $127,400
• 2 Sergio Garcia | 2 | $756,000
• 3 Jim Furyk | 6 | $238,000
• 4 Camillo Villegas | 1 | $1,260,000
• 5 Chad Campbell 22 | $127,400

Here is the comparison between the Tour Outsider and Tour Insider picks.

	Tour Outsider	Tour Insider	Winner
Total Earnings	$2,520,000	$2,508,800	TO
Avg Rank	9.6	10.6	TO
Made Cut	5	5	DRAW
Outcome	--	--	TO

The Total Earnings category was won by the Tour Outsider.

The Avg Rank category was won by the Tour Outsider.

The Made Cut category was a draw.

This tournament overall was won by the Tour Outsider. The difference was Mahan playing one shot better than Campbell.

The overall results between the Tour Outsider and the Tour Insider year to date is, 18 wins to the Tour Outsider, 15 wins to the Tour Insider, and 6 draws.

---

The CLi top 15 looked like this (see below).

Rank Player CLi Rank Earnings Rd4 Rd3 Rd2 Rd1 Actual 1 S Camilo Villegas 2.70 1 4 4 12 $1,260,000 2 S Vijay Singh 3.15 22 24 23 17 $127,400 3 S Jim Furyk 3.30 6 9 12 12 $238,000 4 S Hunter Mahan 5.05 17 20 28 21 $138,600 5 S Sergio Garcia 5.45 2 1 2 6 $756,000 6 S Tim Clark 7.40 29 30 30 30 $113,400 7 S Steve Stricker 7.75 24 21 25 21 $120,400 8 S Mike Weir 10.10 6 8 5 6 $238,000 9 S Ernie Els 11.35 6 9 8 2 $238,000 10 S Carl Pettersson 12.10 21 24 25 27 $131,600 11 S Chad Campbell 13.05 22 28 19 12 $127,400 12 S Briny Baird 13.65 27 17 19 21 $115,500 13 S Justin Leonard 13.80 10 17 12 17 $180,040 14 S Ben Curtis 14.10 5 5 7 8 $280,000 15 S Phil Mickelson 14.85 3 2 3 2 $409,500

Tour Outsider: Tour Championship

This is week is the last tournament in the Fed Ex Cup Playoff series. The tournament, Tour Championship, is being played in Atlanta and is only being contested by 30 players --- the top 30 players in the Fed Ex standings.

Let's look at the Golf CLi and see who the top 15 players are for the tournament ranked by the CLi figure.

Rank Player CLi 1 S Camilo Villegas 2.70 2 S Vijay Singh 3.15 3 S Jim Furyk 3.30 4 S Hunter Mahan 5.05 5 S Sergio Garcia 5.45 6 S Tim Clark 7.40 7 S Steve Stricker 7.75 8 S Mike Weir 10.10 9 S Ernie Els 11.35 10 S Carl Pettersson 12.10 11 S Chad Campbell 13.05 12 S Briny Baird 13.65 13 S Justin Leonard 13.80 14 S Ben Curtis 14.10 15 S Phil Mickelson 14.85

All 15 picks look good for this tournament. That should be the case as the field consists of the top 30 players that are playing the best on tour leading into this event.

I am going to trust the CLi rankings and go with the top 5 players. Villegas, Singh, Furyk, Mahan and Garcia all look good. The only issue would be if Furyk, Mahan and Garcia are worn out from the festival that took place here in Louisville last week (the Ryder Cup). Hopefully not, and hopefully the energy from the Ryder Cup follows them to Atlanta.

On a side note, I wouldn't be surprised if Els plays well this week...as he usually plays well at East Lake and he is rested up.

If I do poorly this week, then something is wrong as it usually is easier to make picks in a smaller field per se. This week it is only 30 players

So the Tour Outsider picks for the Tour Championship are:

Rank Player CLi 1 S Camilo Villegas 2.70 2 S Vijay Singh 3.15 3 S Jim Furyk 3.30 4 S Hunter Mahan 5.05 5 S Sergio Garcia 5.45

The Tour Insider's (Dave Shedloski) picks are:

• 1 Vijay Singh
• 2 Sergio Garcia
• 3 Jim Furyk
• 4 Camilo Villegas
• 5 Chad Campbell

We have 4 players in common in this tournament: Singh, Garcia, Furyk, and Villegas. Hmmmmm....the difference maker will be Campbell (Insider) and Mahan (Outside). Come on Hunter!!!! (maybe I should have picked more experience for the difference maker--- i.e. Els? hopefully, youth and excurbence will be the difference in this case)

Tour Outsider: BMW Championship Review

It is now time to review the picks for the BMW Championship to see how the results turned out.

Here are the results of the Tour Outsider (my) picks.

Rank Player CLi Rank Earnings Rd4 Rd3 Rd2 Rd1 Actual 1 S Sergio Garcia 3.25 20 17 11 12 $87,500 2 S Vijay Singh 7.25 44 48 39 37 $21,163 3 S Ben Curtis 11.20 13 33 39 37 $131,250 4 S Jim Furyk 11.75 3 2 2 37 $406,000 5 S Mike Weir 14.65 67 51 50 21 $14,350

Ok, with my late post last week for the BMW Championship (posted on Thursday before the start of the first round, which got rained out), I was able to get my picks in publicly. They did fairly well, averaging 29.2 with their ranks. If Weir had played better, it would have been a lot better. However, he placed last in the field for those players that finished all 4 rounds of play (67th place).

The bright spot this week was Furyk, who placed 3rd. All five of my players made the cut, which is a good thing. However, that is a false statistics this week as there was not cut to be made and only one player didn't finish all 4 rounds of play and that was Chad Campbell who withdrew after the first round.

Here are the results of the Tour Insider (Dave Shedloski) picks.

• 1 Jim Furyk 3 | $406,000
• 2 Vijay Singh | 44 | $21,163
• 3 Justin Leonard | 17 | $105,000
• 4 Ernie Els | 17 | $105,000
• 5 Kenny Perry 44 | $21,163

Here is the comparison between the Tour Outsider and Tour Insider picks.

	Tour Outsider	Tour Insider	Winner
Total Earnings	$660,263	$658,326	TO
Avg Rank	29.4	25.0	TI
Made Cut	5	5	DRAW
Outcome	--	--	DRAW

The Total Earnings category was won by the Tour Outsider by less than $2,000. That made for an interesting weekend in itself...with the figure being that close to determine who won this category.

The Avg Rank category was won by the Tour Insider.

The Made Cut category was a draw.

This tournament overall was a draw.

The overall results between the Tour Outsider and the Tour Insider year to date is, 17 wins to the Tour Outsider, 15 wins to the Tour Insider, and 6 draws.

---

The CLi top 15 looked like this (see below).

Rank Player CLi Rank Earnings Rd4 Rd3 Rd2 Rd1 Actual 1 S Sergio Garcia 3.25 20 17 11 12 $87,500 2 S Vijay Singh 7.25 44 48 39 37 $21,163 3 S Carl Pettersson 10.15 33 51 54 56 $37,800 4 S Ben Curtis 11.20 13 33 39 37 $131,250 5 S Jim Furyk 11.75 3 2 2 37 $406,000 6 S Mike Weir 14.65 67 51 50 21 $14,350 7 S Camilo Villegas 14.95 1 1 1 1 $1,260,000 8 S Tim Clark 15.50 8 3 7 7 $210,000 9 S Ernie Els 16.05 17 21 39 12 $105,000 10 S Stuart Appleby 17.25 38 39 32 2 $29,400 11 S Angel Cabrera 19.95 22 11 26 21 $64,983 12 S Steve Stricker 22.20 10 17 20 2 $175,000 13 S Phil Mickelson 23.35 17 11 3 12 $105,000 14 S Tim Herron 23.45 38 11 20 2 $29,400 15 S Mark Wilson 24.40 64 65 63 21 $14,700

Tour Outsider: BMW Championship

This is week the US PGA Tour heads to the midwest for the second event of the Fed Ex Cup Playoff to play the BMW Championship.

Let's look at the Golf CLi and see who the top 15 players are for the tournament ranked by the CLi figure.

CLi Strength: Top 15 -7.69 | Field -0.19 Rank Player CLi 1 S Sergio Garcia 3.25 2 S Vijay Singh 7.25 3 S Carl Pettersson 10.15 4 S Ben Curtis 11.20 5 S Jim Furyk 11.75 6 S Mike Weir 14.65 7 S Camilo Villegas 14.95 8 S Tim Clark 15.50 9 S Ernie Els 16.05 10 S Stuart Appleby 17.25 11 S Angel Cabrera 19.95 12 S Steve Stricker 22.20 13 S Phil Mickelson 23.35 14 S Tim Herron 23.45 15 S Mark Wilson 24.40

I am behind in posting my picks this week as I was in several PhD seminars this week. The reading load has ramped up in the doctorate program, and that makes it tough to do much else than read. It is a good thing that I like to read.

Now on to the picks. This week is a new venue for the BMW Championship (formerly the Western Open). It has moved this year from Chicago, Illinois (Cog Hill) to St. Louis, Missouri (Bellerive Country Club). So much of the importance on the historical data for this tournament that can be used to help predict how players will play in this tournament gets minimized. So the Golf CLi calculation puts more weight on how players are playing leading up to the tournament. As you can see from the Golf CLi rankings list above, most of the players in the top 15 have been playing well of late.

I am going to with the top 2 in the list (Garcia and Singh), will skip over Pettersson (unknown factor this week), and then go with Curtis, Furyk and Weir.

I skipped over Singh last week in the Deutsch Bank U.S. Championship thinking he was tired. However, he ended up winning the event. Hopefully he keeps his energy level up for another 4 rounds this week.

Then I hope that Weir continues to make every putt he looks at. Last week in the Deutsche, his putting was awesome. Hopefully he takes that confidence with the flat stick and puts it to good use in St. Louis this week.

So the Tour Outsider picks for the BMW Championship are:

Rank Player CLi 1 S Sergio Garcia 3.25 2 S Vijay Singh 7.25 3 S Ben Curtis 11.20 4 S Jim Furyk 11.75 5 S Mike Weir 14.65

The Tour Insider's (Dave Shedloski) picks are:

• 1 Jim Furyk
• 2 Vijay Singh
• 3 Justin Leonard
• 4 Erine Els
• 5 Kenny Perry

We have 2 players in common in this tournament: Furyk and Singh.