Humana Challenge

The US PGA Tour moves to the mainland and lands on the west coast to play the Humana Challenge. This tournament was formerly called the Bob Hope Classic. As of this year, the tournament has the name of the sponsor, Humana.  Humana was founded in 1961 in my current home town, Louisville, Kentucky, by David Jones Sr.

The son of the founder, David Jones, Jr, works in my area of research -- entrepreneurial finance. He is a partner in a venture capital firm, Chrysalis Ventures.  So I end up following what Jones and Chrysalis decide where to invest their money.

Now on to what this post is about, picking 5 players for this week's professional golf tournament that is sanctioned by the U.S. PGA Tour.

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

#	Player	CLi
1	Chris Kirk	11.15
2	Ben Crane	16.15
3	Brian Gay	18.25
4	Bryce Molder	21.20
5	Charles Howell III	21.65
6	Harrison Frazar	21.85
7	Anthony Kim	21.95
8	Justin Leonard	22.45
9	Greg Chalmers	23.15
10	Kevin Na	24.40
11	John Senden	25.20
12	Martin Laird	27.60
13	Jason Dufner	27.65
14	Brendon De Jonge	28.25
15	John Rollins	30.25

I am going to go with the top player, Kirk (analysis).  This might seem like an interesting pick as Kirk is not well known. However, placed well in the tournament last year (his only time he has played the tournament) with a 7th place finish.  In addition, he comes into the tournament with several solid finishes at the Sony and the Hyundai in Hawaii along with strong finishes in his last tournament in 2011 (the CIMB).

I am going to skip over Crane (analysis).  He has not missed a cut at the tournament, however, he has not placed all that well either.  Other than his 5th place finish in 2004, he hasn't broke the top 10 in the 7 times he has played this tournament since 2000.  His average finish is 38.6.  I am looking for better upside in a player this week.

The next 4 players in the list look better in terms of upside.  These players include Gay (analysis), Molder (analysis), Howell III (analysis) and Frazar (analysis).  Gay and Molder have played well in this tournament the past couple of years.  Howell III and Frazar placed 2nd last week at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

Below are my 5 picks for the Humana Challenge :

#	Player	CLi
1	Chris Kirk	11.15
2	Brian Gay	18.25
3	Bryce Molder	21.20
4	Charles Howell III	21.65
5	Harrison Frazar	21.85

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

1. Bill Haas
2. Martin Laird
3. Bo van Pelt
4. Charles Howell III
5. Kyle Stanley

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: Humana Challenge

We have 1 player in common this week: Howell III.

Below are the settings for the CLi calculation I used for the Humana Challenge:

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%

If you don't like the configuration of my CLi calculation, feel free to run your own CLi calculation with your own desired settings by going to golfcli.com.