PGA Championship

This week the US PGA Tour plays the last of the four majors, the PGA Championship. The championship is being played at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina.

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

#	Player	CLi
1	Keegan Bradley	2.80
2	Tiger Woods	5.90
3	Jason Dufner	8.60
4	Scott Piercy	10.90
5	Ernie Els	15.10
6	Zach Johnson	15.40
7	Steve Stricker	16.50
8	Matt Kuchar	19.20
9	Francesco Molinari	19.30
10	John Senden	20.00
11	Rory McIlroy	23.10
12	Adam Scott	24.10
13	Luke Donald	24.60
14	Alexander Noren	25.20
15	Dustin Johnson	26.40

I am going to go with the first 3 players in the CLi rankings: Bradley (analysis), Woods (analysis), and Dufner (analysis).

Before last week, Bradley had been struggling in terms of his finishes. However, he closed with a 62 in the Bridgestone Invitational last week to over take Furyk, who double bogeyed the last hole to lose to Bradley.  With his win last week, and his win last year in the PGA Championship, it could bode well for a good finish for him this week at Kiawah Island.  And in the end, his CLi figure is very low (2.80).

Woods didn't show his good stuff last week at the Bridgestone Invitational in the first two rounds, shooting two-over par.  However, he relaxed during the weekend of the tournament and shot 68 and 66.  He worked on a few things during the weekend, and with confidence garnered from his early rounds in the last two majors (the U.S. Open and the British Open), he might be able to keep it low (both in terms of score and ball flight, which is important on a windy course like Kiawah Island) and place well in the final major of the year.  It doesn't hurt his confidence that he has already won 3 tournaments this year.

Since losing in a playoff last year to Bradley in this event, Dufner has been around on the weekends during the three previous majors this year.  His demeanor is an advantage on difficult courses like Kiawah Island.  Plus, it doesn't hurt his confidence that he has won twice this year and placed 7th last week at the Bridgestone Invitational.

I am skipping over Piercy (analysis).  He has shown some good play the past several months.  However, he is inexperienced in playing in majors and on venues like Kiawah Island.

I am also skipping over Els (analysis), one of my favorite players, and Johnson (analysis).  Winning the British Open could be a kickstarter for a strong finish in end of seasons tournaments for Els.  However, in the last two tournaments he played in since winning the British Open, he has not placed or played well.  And although Kiawah Island might be a good course for him as it is similar to a British Open layout, it is difficult for me to pick him this week.

For Johnson, he has been up and down since winning the John Deere a month ago.  He did place 9th in the British Open, which is a tournament that provides similar conditions as Kiawah Island.  However, his 40th place finish last week at the Bridgestone Invitational, in relatively easy conditions, makes me wonder if he is tiring out.

For my final two picks, I am going to pick Stricker (analysis) and Kuchar (analysis).  Fellow UIllinois alumni, Stricker, placed second last week in the Bridgestone Invitational.  Prior to last week, he had finished 23rd (British Open) and 5th (John Deere).  In addition, he has only missed one cut this year (at the PLAYERS Championship).  In the past two PGA Championships, he has placed 12th and 18th.  These are solid results for this tournament and the year.  The question will be if his neck will hold up after playing four tournaments in the past 4-5 weeks.

Kuchar placed 8th last week at the Bridgestone Invitational and 9th at the British Open 3 weeks ago.  Those results sandwiched his 34th finish at the  Canadian Open, which might be a concern.  However, he has yet to miss a cut this year.  He has two solid finishes in the PGA Championship the last two years, placing 19th last year and 10th the year before.

Below are my 5 picks for the PGA Championship:

#	Player	CLi
1	Keegan Bradley	2.80
2	Tiger Woods	5.90
3	Jason Dufner	8.60
4	Steve Stricker	16.50
5	Matt Kuchar	19.20

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

1. Louis Oosthuizen
2. Jason Dufner
3. Tiger Woods
4. Graeme McDowell
5. Bubba Watson

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: PGA Championship

We have 2 players in common this tournament: Dufner and Woods

Below are the settings for the CLi calculation I used for the PGA Championship:

Number of Past Tournaments Looking Back
Number	Scoring Avg Weight (SA1)	Earnings Avg Weight (EA1)
5	20%	20%
Number of Days Looking Back
Number	Scoring Avg Weight (SA2)	Earnings Avg Weight (EA2)
30	10%	10%
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.