Farmers Insurance Open

The US PGA Tour stays in southern California to play the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.  This is another tournament that has changed from being a tournament named by an auto sponsor (Buick) to another name.  My take on these changes over the past 5-6 years is that healthcare and insurance companies are doing much better than auto companies.

Below is the list of the top 15 players in the CLi rankings for the Farmers Insurance Open.

#	Player	CLi
1	Brandt Snedeker	6.90
2	Phil Mickelson	13.55
3	Charles Howell III	14.20
4	John Huh	16.65
5	Bubba Watson	17.60
6	Keegan Bradley	20.35
7	Dustin Johnson	20.40
8	Vijay Singh	20.85
9	John Rollins	21.70
10	Scott Piercy	21.90
11	Nick Watney	22.95
12	Stewart Cink	25.85
13	Matt Jones	26.20
14	Ryo Ishikawa	29.35
15	Bryce Molder	29.45

Even though there is just one player that has a CLi figure below 10, I am still going with the top 5 players in the CLI rankings: Snedeker (analysis), Mickelson (analysis), Howell III (analysis), Huh (analysis), and Watson (analysis).

Sendeker won this event last year and have placed in the top 10 in the 6 times he has played in the tournament.  Last week he finished 23rd (Humana Challenge) and finished 3rd in the Hyundai tournament of Champions the first week of January.

Mickelson is San Diego's favorite professional golfer and loves playing at Torrey Pines.  He missed hte cut last week, but that was because he might have had something else on his mind (one of his daughter had an health issue).  Prior to last year the only time he has missed the cut since 2000 was in 2003.  He has won the event twice (2000 and 2001), placed 2nd in 2011, and has placed in the top 10 seven times since 2000.  He has only played once this season, and that was last week at the Humana Challenge when placed 37th.

Howell III is playing well this year, having placed 2nd last week at the Human Challenge and 3rd at the Sony Open in Hawaii prior to that.  He has yet to miss the cut in this event, and has placed in the top-15  six of the ten times he has played in the event.

Huh is fairly new to the US PGA Tour, with his rookie season last year. In his rookie season he placed 6th in this event.  He has played two tournaments this year so far and has placed 31st (Sony Open in Hawaii) and 18th (Hyundai Tournament of Champions).

Watson won this event in 2011 and then backed up his win with a 13th place last year.  He has missed the cut once in the seven times he has played in the event, and has finished in the top-15 four times.  He has played only one event this season and that was at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions where he finished 4th.

Below are my 5 picks for the Farmers Insurance Open:

#	Player	CLi
1	Brandt Snedeker	6.90
2	Phil Mickelson	13.55
3	Charles Howell III	14.20
4	John Huh	16.65
5	Bubba Watson	17.60

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

1. Bubba Watson
2. Dustin Johnson
3. Charles Howell III
4. Nick Watney
5. Brandt Snedeker

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: Farmers Insurance Open

We have 3 players in common this week: Watson, Howell III, and Snedeker

Below are the settings for the CLi calculation I used for the Farmers Insurance Open:

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.