The Masters

This week is the first major of the year, The Masters.

Below is the list of the top 15 players in the CLi rankings for the Masters.

#	Player	CLi
1	Anthony Kim	10.40
2	Tiger Woods	11.30
3	Paul Casey	12.55
4	Vijay Singh	13.65
5	Ernie Els	14.25
6	Jim Furyk	14.30
7	Luke Donald	14.65
8	Retief Goosen	15.60
9	Fred Couples	16.35
10	Phil Mickelson	17.90
11	Padraig Harrington	19.00
12	Nick Watney	19.40
13	Hunter Mahan	20.20
14	Ian Poulter	20.45
15	Steve Stricker	20.80

The main thing that sticks out at me when I look at the CLi rankings is that no player has a CLi figure less than 10. As I have mentioned in previous posts, that usually means that there is no clear favorite in the tournament...and thus makes it harder to pick players. Being that this is a major, and majors are difficult to pick players in the first place, that makes it even harder for picking players that will play well.

I will get off my soapbox and just pick accordingly. Even though Kim last week and he is the lowest CLi ranking player, I am going to skip him. I think he will not be focused having won last week. He will have confidence. But experience comes before confidence at Augusta, and he doesn't have a lot of experience playing at Augusta.

So my first pick will be Tiger. Even though Tiger has been out of competition for the past 3-5 months, and he has done some things that I disagree with personally, golf has not been far from his mind. He might be a little rusty when it comes down to the fine points of the game this weekend. But he will place well (i.e. in the top 20).

The next two picks, Casey and Singh, are players that I like and which are playing well leading up to this week...if they can hit the ball. However, both of them hurt me last week when they pulled out of the Shell Houston Open. Casey didn't withdrew before even hitting a shot and Singh pulled out after playing 9 holes due to a back injury. I just don't know if their injuries will hold them up this week. So I am going to pass on them. If they were healthy they would definite be threats to win the tournament.

I am then going to pick the next 4 players: Els, Furyk, Donald, and Goosen.

Below are my 5 picks for the Masters:

#	Player	CLi
1	Tiger Woods	11.30
2	Ernie Els	14.25
3	Jim Furyk	14.30
4	Luke Donald	14.65
5	Retief Goosen	15.60

Below is the top 5 players in the Power Rankings from Rob Bolton:

1. Retief Goosen
2. Steve Stricker
3. Lee Westwood
4. Tiger Woods
5. Ernie Els

Here is a link to Bolton's Power Rankings so that you can read more about his thoughts on his top players in this week's Power Rankings:

Bolton's Power Rankings: Masters

We have 3 players in common this week: Goosen, Woods, and Els.

Below are the settings for the CLi calculation I used for the Masters:

Number of Past Tournaments Looking Back
Number	Scoring Avg Weight (SA1)	Earnings Avg Weight (EA1)
6	25%	25%
Number of Days Looking Back
Number	Scoring Avg Weight (SA2)	Earnings Avg Weight (EA2)
60	5%	5%
Number of Tournaments Looking Back
Number	Scoring Avg Weight (SA3)	Earnings Avg Weight (EA3)
6	20%	20%