Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Puerto Rico Open

As mentioned in my previous post, this is another "two-tournament" week for the US PGA Tour. My previous post was on my picks for the CA Championship which is being played at Doral in Florida. This post is for my picks for the Puerto Rico Open.

Rank Player CLi
1 S Kevin Stadler 4.90
2 S Jerry Kelly 8.25
3 S Ted Purdy 14.80
4 S Bo Van Pelt 21.65
5 S John Merrick 23.90
6 S Jeffrey Overton 32.55
7 S Chris Smith 37.15
8 S Joe Durant 37.25
9 S Mark Brooks 37.50
10 S Tim Wilkinson 39.20
11 S Jeff Klauk 42.10
12 S Rich Beem 43.00
13 S Chris Riley 44.30
14 S Jason Day 47.10
15 S Nicholas Thompson 49.95

Interesting that Kevin Stadler is on the top of the CLi rankings list. I would not have imagined him being there. However, in looking at his analysis for the tournament (see Stadler analysis) it shows he played well here last year (finished 4th) and has played well in his previous two tournaments (Mayakoba Classic - 20th; AT&T Pebble Beach - 14th). So I will stick with him even though it seems like an odd pick.

I will also go with the 2nd player in the CLi rankings list: Jerry Kelly. He finished 2nd here last year. However, he missed the cut last week at the Honda Classic. One of my concerns with picking Kelly is that he might be wanting to play at Doral too much this week, as that is where the big boys are playing. And thus, he might lose his focus on playing well in Puerto Rico. This point might be put to bed in the fact that he played well in the Mayakoba Classic (he finished 6th), which was played opposite another World Golf Championship event -- the Accenture World Match Play. So I am going to stick with him this week.

I am going to pass on Purdy and van Pelt. Then will pick Merrick and Overton. Merrick has been playing solid this season, and Overton is proving he can play well in windy conditions (wind will most likely be a factor this week in Puerto Rico, just like last week at the Honda Classic).

For my final pick, I am going to go all the way down to the 12th spot in the CLi rankings to pick Rich Beem. This pick is more for supporting his cause of getting sponsors on his own this year, which is courageous in itself these days. Hopefully his hard work will pay off this week.

Below are my 5 picks for the Puerto Open Open:

Rank Player CLi
1 S Kevin Stadler 4.90
2 S Jerry Kelly 8.25
3 S John Merrick 23.90
4 S Jeffrey Overton 32.55
5 S Rich Beem 43.00

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