Accenture Match Play Championship

This week, the US PGA Tour has two events. One is the Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona, and the other is the Mayakoba Classic in Mexico. This post is for the Accenture Match Play Championship.

Below is the list of the top 15 players in the CLi rankings for the Accenture Match Play Championship.

#	Player	CLi
1	Rory McIlroy	4.55
2	Ben Crane	6.60
3	Tiger Woods	10.00
4	Bubba Watson	11.85
5	Mark Wilson	12.35
6	Bill Haas	13.00
7	Kyle Stanley	14.75
8	Steve Stricker	14.75
9	Brandt Snedeker	15.15
10	Lee Westwood	15.40
11	Webb Simpson	16.65
12	Keegan Bradley	18.30
13	Aaron Baddeley	18.30
14	Graeme McDowell	18.45
15	Sergio Garcia	18.95

In addition to the Golf CLi, I used an additional tool for making my picks for this match play event. It is Fanooz's Head-to-Head. As the name of the tool implies, the tool allows you to compare the results of selected players to determine how they do head-to-head. So, using the brackets, I ran through each match with the Head-to-Head tool and simulated the outcomes until I came up with a winner based upon what the results were from the Head-to-Head tool. Then I compared those results with the Golf CLi to come up with my picks.

[ Use the Head-to-Head tool for the Accenture Match Play Championship ]

The Head-to-Head analysis using the Head-to-Head tool resulted in Crane (analysis), Donald (analysis), McIlroy (analysis), Stricker (analysis), and Woods (analysis) being the top 5 picks [ the tool predicts Stricker to win it all ].  4 of these 5 players are in the top 15 CLi rankings, with Donald being the player left out.  Since I can only pick players from the top 15 in the CLi rankings, I need to pick a substitute player for Donald.  That is frustrating, as I think Donald is going to play well this week.

The next players that the Head-to-Head tool said to pick were Scott (analysis), Kuchar (analysis), Day (analysis), and Rose (analysis).  All 4 of those players were also outside the top 15 in the CLi rankings.  Then going further down the Head-to-Head list it left me with Westwood (analysis) and Garcia (analysis), who are in the top 15 in the CLi rankings.  Garcia played well last week, but can be sporadic.  This is shown in his finishes in this tournament. He has placed 4th and 9th several times, but has also gone out in the first round several times as well.  Westwood is a bulldog, which usually bodes well in match play.  However, Westwood has not gotten past the 2nd round of match play in this event (i.e. he has not won more than one match in this event).  So I am going to go with Garcia on this one, with the hope that this year's event is an "up year" for him.

Below are my 5 picks for the Accenture Match Play Championship:

#	Player	CLi
1	Rory McIlroy	4.55
2	Ben Crane	6.60
3	Tiger Woods	10.00
4	Steve Stricker	14.75
5	Sergio Garcia	18.95

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

1. Rory McIlroy
2. Luke Donald
3. Matt Kuchar
4. Nick Watney
5. Charl Schwartzel

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: Accenture Match Play Championship

We have 1 player in common this week: McIlroy.

Below are the settings for the CLi calculation I used for the Accenture Match Play 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%

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.