Arnold Palmer Invitational

As mentioned in my previous post regarding the review of the results for the Transitions Championship, I am late in posting this week because of my trip from Louisville-to South Texas-back to Louisville....a nice long road trip.  However, it is better being late than not posting my picks at all.

The US PGA Tour moves to central Florida this week to play Palmer's tournament, the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Below is the list of the top 15 players in the CLi rankings for the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

#	Player	CLi
1	Tiger Woods	3.20
2	Justin Rose	10.70
3	Jim Furyk	12.65
4	Bo Van Pelt	14.80
5	Bubba Watson	17.55
6	Hunter Mahan	18.80
7	Robert Allenby	19.15
8	Ernie Els	20.15
9	Ben Crane	20.20
10	Phil Mickelson	21.40
11	David Toms	22.35
12	Sergio Garcia	22.75
13	Dicky Pride	24.10
14	Spencer Levin	25.05
15	Webb Simpson	27.05

Only one player has a CLi figure below 10, and that is Woods (analysis).  In the previous 10 instances of this tournament, Woods has won this event 4 times.  He has never missed the cut in the event.  In addition, he finished 2nd at the Honda Classic several weeks ago.  So even though he pulled out of the Cadillac Championship two weeks ago due to an Achilles injury, he is my first pick.

And then looking down the list, I am going to stick with the next four players in the CLi rankings: Rose (analysis), Furyk (analysis), Van Pelt (analysis), and Watson (analysis).

Rose finished third in this event last year, and won the Cadillac two weeks ago.  He is ready to keep his good finishes going in Florida.

Furyk was leading going into the final round last week at the Transitions Championship before losing in a playoff to Donald.  So he is has a good finish in Florida leading up to this event.  And the last two years in the event he has finished 9th and 11th.

Van Pelt has not missed the cut in this event the 7 times he has played in it.  And he has placed in the top 10 in the last 3 medal play events he has played in, including 9th last week at the Transitions Championship.

Watson has been sporadic in this event, having missed the cut 3 times out of the 6 times he has played in it.  However last year, he was on track for a good finish in the event if it wasn't for the 78 he shot in the final round.  And he was leading the tournament going into the final round in 2008 before he finished 8th.  So he can play well on the course if he can get over his stage fright....which is very capable of doing.  In addition, he was 2nd at the Cadillac Championship two weeks ago.  I am going to pick him since he is playing well, and has shown brightness on occasion at Arnie's event.

As with last week, I am putting my faith again in the CLi calculation.

Below are my 5 picks for the Arnold Palmer Invitational:

#	Player	CLi
1	Tiger Woods	3.20
2	Justin Rose	10.70
3	Jim Furyk	12.65
4	Bo Van Pelt	14.80
5	Bubba Watson	17.55

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

1. Tiger Woods
2. Justin Rose
3. Webb Simpson
4. Bo Van Pelt
5. Jim Furyk

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: Arnold Palmer Invitational

We have 4 players in common this tournament: Woods, Rose, Van Pelt, and Furyk.  That means it is Simpson against Watson.  Go Bubba!!!!

Below are the settings for the CLi calculation I used for the Arnold Palmer Invitational:

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.