HP Byron Nelson Championship

This week the US PGA Tour stays in Texas and will be in Dallas to play the HP Byron Nelson Championship.

Below is the list of the top 15 players in the CLi rankings for the HP Byron Nelson Championship.

#	Player	CLi
1	Brian Davis	17.35
2	Brett Wetterich	17.65
3	Charley Hoffman	19.40
4	Greg Chalmers	22.90
5	Heath Slocum	22.90
6	Ben Crane	26.30
7	Ken Duke	27.45
8	Corey Pavin	30.60
9	Tommy Armour III	32.90
10	Rory Sabbatini	33.10
11	Shaun Micheel	34.60
12	Jimmy Walker	35.10
13	Ricky Barnes	37.45
14	Sean O'Hair	37.80
15	Scott Verplank	39.10

There are no players with a CLi less than 10, and only 3 players that have a CLi less than 20. It is unusual to have only 3 players have a CLi less than 20. That is definitely telling me that there are no clear cut favorites this week. Picking players will thus be difficult, and more of an art than a science.

The first player in the CLi rankings is Davis. When looking at his finishes at this tournament, he is all over the board. Of the last 4 times he has played the tournament, he has missed the cut twice (half of the time). And when he has missed the cut, he has not been close to making the cut. However, in the 2 times he made the cut, he finished in the top 8, with the a 2nd place finish last year. He has missed the cut in the last two tournaments he has played in. However, he placed 2nd a month ago at the Verizon Heritage, losing out in a playoff against Furyk --- calling a penalty on himself during the playoff, resulting in him not winning the tournament. With all of that information, it is difficult to decide to pick him or not. I am going to take a chance and look at the bright side of his record at this tournament, and thus will include him in my picks.

Wetterich is the next player in the list. Taking out his 108th place last year, he has tended to play well in this tournament. Along with his good showing at the Valero Texas Open last week (13th place), I think he will have a good week. Thus, he is my 2nd pick.

Both Chalmers and Hoffman have been playing well of late, and I look to see that trend continue this week. Slocum is the 5th player in the list. He doesn't play well here, having missed the cut 4 out of the last 5 times he has played the tournament since 2002. However, the one time he made the cut, in 2005, he placed 18th. He has been playing well lately, having finished no worse than 30th in the past 4 tournaments he has played in. That is a good sign. Thus, these 3 players will round out my 5 picks. It looks like I have stuck with the CLi rankings...even though I said it was going to be an art more so than science (the CLi is the science part). Hmmmm...we will have to see how things turn out this week.

Below are my 5 picks for the HP Byron Nelson Championship:

#	Player	CLi
1	Brian Davis	17.35
2	Brett Wetterich	17.65
3	Charley Hoffman	19.40
4	Greg Chalmers	22.90
5	Heath Slocum	22.90

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

1. Hunter Mahan
2. Ben Crane
3. Heath Slocum
4. Charlie Wi
5. Rickie Fowler

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: HP Byron Nelson Championship

We have 1 players in common this week: Slocum.

Below are the settings for the CLi calculation I used for the HP Byron Nelson Championship:

Number of Past Tournaments Looking Back
Number	Scoring Avg Weight (SA1)	Earnings Avg Weight (EA1)
5	25%	25%
Number of Days Looking Back
Number	Scoring Avg Weight (SA2)	Earnings Avg Weight (EA2)
30	5%	5%
Number of Tournaments Looking Back
Number	Scoring Avg Weight (SA3)	Earnings Avg Weight (EA3)
4	20%	20%