Wednesday, February 27, 2013

The Masters CLi Prediction as of 2013-02-27

This is a continuation of the weekly posts I started several weeks ago in which I post the current Golf CLi calculations for the 2013 Masters.  The post was spurred by Alex Miceli's article regarding the current odds for the tournament.

As with the last two weeks, I didn't see Alex post an updated version of the Vegas odds, so I grabbed them from another web site this week.

Here are the odds for the top 15 players for the 2013 Masters as of 2013-02-26.

# Player Odds
1 Tiger Woods  11/2
2 Rory McIlroy  13/1
3 Charl Schwartzel  15/1
4 Justin Rose  15/1
5 Louis Oosthuizen  25/1
6 Lee Westwood  25/1
7 Graeme McDowell  25/1
8 Fredrik Jacobson  25/1
9 Jason Day  30/1
10 Keegan Bradley  30/1
11 Jason Dufner  30/1
12 Dustin Johnson  35/1
13 Martin Kaymer  35/1
14 Rickie Fowler  40/1
15 Peter Hanson  55/1

Source: Vegas Insider

There are no changes in the Vegas odds this week in the top 3.  Woods, McIlroy, and Schwartzel remained 1-2-3.  Rose was a big mover up, as he moved 4 spots compared to last week (from 8th to 4th).

Here are the top 15 players in the CLi rankings for the 2013 Masters as of 2013-02-27.

# Player CLi 
1  Jason Day 3.25
2  Phil Mickelson 3.50
3  Matt Kuchar 6.25
4  Charl Schwartzel 6.75
5  Tiger Woods 9.00
6  Brandt Snedeker 9.25
7  Hunter Mahan 9.50
8  Bubba Watson 12.25
9  Fredrik Jacobson 14.50
10  Steve Stricker 14.50
11  Justin Rose 15.00
12  Luke Donald 16.00
13  Ian Poulter 16.75
14  Adam Scott 16.75
15  Louis Oosthuizen 17.25

This week Mickelson lost his top spot to Day, as Day moved from 2nd to 1st in the CLI rankings.  Schwartzel dropped 2 spots to 4th, while Kuchar was a big mover up -- moving from 8th to 3rd.  his win last week at in the Accentur World Match Play was a big factor in that move.  Last year's Masters runner-up, Oosthuizen, is back in the top 15 after dropping out for two weeks.

Here is the Golf CLi calculation configuration for these results:

Number of Past Tournaments Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA1)Earnings Avg Weight (EA1)
525%25%
Number of Days Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA2)Earnings Avg Weight (EA2)
300%0%
Number of Tournaments Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA3)Earnings Avg Weight (EA3)
425%25%

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.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Honda Classic

The US PGA Tour now moves to the east coast for several tournaments in Florida.  This week is the Honda Classic.

Below is the list of the top 15 players in the CLi rankings for the Honda Classic.

# Player CLi 
1  Charl Schwartzel 5.55
2  Fredrik Jacobson 8.25
3  Kevin Stadler 18.50
4  Justin Hicks 18.80
5  Lee Westwood 19.85
6  Tiger Woods 20.55
7  Matt Jones 22.30
8  Rory McIlroy 22.45
9  Ted Potter Jr 22.80
10  Justin Rose 24.50
11  Greg Chalmers 25.50
12  Charles Howell III 26.15
13  John Merrick 27.40
14  Chris Kirk 27.65
15  Keegan Bradley 29.05

I am going with the top 2 players: Schwartzel (analysis) and Jacobson (analysis).  Their CLi figure is much lower than the other players.  Schwartzel's CLi is 5.55 and Jacobson's CLi is 8.25.  The next closest CLi figure is 18.50 (Stadler).

Schwartzel placed 5th and 14th in this event the past two years (the only two years he has played in this event).  In addition, he has finished 3rd (Northern Trust Open) and 2nd (Joburg Open) in the last two medal play events he has played in.

Jacobson likes this tournament.  He has finished in the top-6 three of the seven times he has played in this event.  He would like a win at this event, and can do it with how well he plays in difficult conditions (for example, if it gets windy this week at PGA National).  Leading up to this event he has placed 9th (Accenture World Match Play), 3rd (Northern Trust Open), and 7th (AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am).

For my next 3 picks I am going to pick Stadler (analysis), skip over Hicks (analysis), and pick Westwood (analysis) and Woods (analysis).

Stadler has finished 3rd (AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am) and 11th (Waste Management Phoenix Open) in two of his last three events.  And he finished 9th in this event last year.

Hicks placed 17th in this tournament last year, and placed 12th several weeks ago at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am.  Plus he has yet to miss a cut this season -- having played in 4 tournaments.  However, his experience is low compared to the next two players in the CLi rankings (Westwood and Woods) and the CLi figures are not much different between Hicks, Westwood, and Woods. Thus I am going to pass on Hicks this week.

Westwood has finished 4th (2012) and 9th (2010) in two of the last 3 years in this event. He didn't fair so well last week in match play, but was playing solidly in the medal play events before that -- 21st in the Northern Trust Open, 46th in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am, and 5th in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

Woods is playing this event for only the second time since 2000.  He finished 2nd in his previous outing in this event, which was last year.  He also has a win under his belt in one of the three tournaments he has played in this year, which was at the Farmers Insurance Open a month ago.  He missed the cut in Abu Dhabi and fell in the first round in the match play event last week (although he did hit the ball well -- Charles Howell III just played a superb round that day).

Below are my 5 picks for the Honda Classic:

# Player CLi 
1  Charl Schwartzel 5.55
2  Fredrik Jacobson 8.25
3  Kevin Stadler 18.50
4  Lee Westwood 19.85
5  Tiger Woods 20.55

Below are the top 5 players in the Power Rankings from Rob Bolton:
  1. Charl Schwartzel
  2. Graeme McDowell
  3. Tiger Woods
  4. Fredrik Jacobson
  5. Justin Rose
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: Honda Classic

We have 3 players in common this week: Schwartzel, Woods, and Jacobson

Below are the settings for the CLi calculation I used for the Honda Classic:

Number of Past Tournaments Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA1)Earnings Avg Weight (EA1)
525%25%
Number of Days Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA2)Earnings Avg Weight (EA2)
305%5%
Number of Tournaments Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA3)Earnings Avg Weight (EA3)
420%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.

Accenture World Match Play Review

It is now time to review the picks for the Accenture World Match Play to see how the results turned out.

Here are the results of the Tour Outsider (my) picks.
  1. Tiger Woods | 33 | $46,000
  2. Charl Schwartzel | 33 | $46,000
  3. Luke Donald | 17 | $96,000
  4. Hunter Mahan | 2 | $875,000
  5. Sergio Garcia | 17 | $96,000
Here are the results for the Tour Insider's (Bolton's) picks.
  1. Luke Donald | 17 | $96,000
  2. Jason Day | 3 | $615,000
  3. Tiger Woods | 33 | $46,000
  4. Ernie Els | 33 | $46,000
  5. Sergio Garcia | 17 | $96,000
Here is the comparison of the results for our picks.


Tour OutsiderTour InsiderWinner
Total Earnings$1,159,000$899,000TO
Avg Rank20.420.6TO
Made Cut55DRAW
Outcome----TO

The Total Earnings category was won by the Tour Outsider.

The Avg Rank category was won by the Tour Outsider.

The Made Cut category was a draw -- not cut in this event.

The tournament overall was won by the Tour Outsider.

The overall results between the Tour Outsider and the Tour Insider is 2 wins to the Tour Outsider6 wins to the Tour Insider, and 0 draws.

I picked up my 2nd win of the season.  It was a tough win, as it boiled down to the last day of match play.  In the end, Mahan won his semi-final match and Day lost his semi-final match.  That meant Mahan could play in the championship match to try to win the tournament, eventually losing to Kuchar in the championship match, while Day won the consolidation match over Poulter.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

The Masters CLi Prediction as of 2013-02-20

This is a continuation of the weekly posts I started several weeks ago in which I post the current Golf CLi calculations for the 2013 Masters.  The post was spurred by Alex Miceli's article regarding the current odds for the tournament.

As with last week, I didn't see Alex post an updated version of the Vegas odds, so I grabbed them from another web site this week.

Here are the odds for the top 15 players for the 2013 Masters as of 2013-02-19.

# Player Odds 
1 Tiger Woods  10/1
2 Rory McIlroy  12/1
3 Charl Schwartzel  15/1
4 Luke Donald  15/1
5 Ian Poulter  20/1
6 Hunter Mahan  25/1
7 Louis Oosthuizen  25/1
8 Adam Scott  25/1
9 Justin Rose  25/1
10 Lee Westwood  25/1
11 Martin Kaymer  30/1
12 Jason Dufner  30/1
13 Matt Kuchar  30/1
14 Keegan Bradley  30/1
15 Webb Simpson  30/1

Source: Vegas Insider

The big change in the Vegas odds this week is that Mickelson dropped out of the top 15 for some reason.  He was third last week.  Poulter moved to 5th place this week.  He wasn't in the top 15 last week.

Here are the top 15 players in the CLi rankings for the 2013 Masters as of 2013-02-20.

# Player CLi 
1  Phil Mickelson 3.75
2  Charl Schwartzel 5.50
3  Jason Day 8.25
4  Brandt Snedeker 9.25
5  Tiger Woods 9.50
6  Bubba Watson 12.50
7  Hunter Mahan 13.75
8  Matt Kuchar 14.00
9  Steve Stricker 14.00
10  Adam Scott 14.25
11  Luke Donald 16.00
12  Fredrik Jacobson 16.50
13  Fred Couples 17.25
14  Ryan Moore 18.25
15  Rory McIlroy 19.75

Compared to last week, the top four stayed the same (Mickelson, Schwartzel, Day, and Snedeker).  Woods moved up two spots from 7th to 5th, and Mahan moved from 13th to 7th.

Here is the Golf CLi calculation configuration for these results:

Number of Past Tournaments Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA1)Earnings Avg Weight (EA1)
525%25%
Number of Days Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA2)Earnings Avg Weight (EA2)
300%0%
Number of Tournaments Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA3)Earnings Avg Weight (EA3)
425%25%

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.

Accenture World Match Play

The US PGA Tour, and many of the tours around the world, are in Arizona to play a World Golf Championship event - the Accenture World Match Play.

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

# Player CLi 
1  Tiger Woods 6.15
2  Charl Schwartzel 7.85
3  Luke Donald 9.75
4  Hunter Mahan 9.95
5  Sergio Garcia 12.10
6  Ryan Moore 12.80
7  Jason Day 13.20
8  Bill Haas 13.85
9  Bubba Watson 14.10
10  Richard Sterne 15.45
11  George Coetzee 16.55
12  Martin Kaymer 17.00
13  Matt Kuchar 17.30
14  Fredrik Jacobson 17.45
15  Charles Howell III 18.15

I am going to go with the top 5 in the CLi rankings: Woods (analysis), Schwartzel (analysis), Donald (analysis), Mahan (analysis), and Garcia (analysis).

Woods is a fierce competitor and loves match play.  Plus, he has had good form of late, winning several weeks ago in San Diego at the Farmers Insurance Open.

Schwartzel doesn't necessarily go deep in match play, usually winning his first round match but losing his second round match.  He has been playing extremely well lately.  So hopefully that will propel him past the second round.

Donald is a steady and tough competitor in match play.  He tends to make the shots needed to get through to the late rounds.  He won this event in 2011.

Mahan won this event last year and placed 9th the previous year.  He was in the mix in the final round last week at the Northern Trust Open.  So he has some good golf in him coming into this week.

Garcia is eractic in match play.  He either plays very well, or not so well.  Thus his record in match play events is all over the board.  His best finish in this event was in 2010 when he finished 4th.  With his solid and consistent play this season, he could go far into the late rounds of this tournament.

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

# Player CLi 
1  Tiger Woods 6.15
2  Charl Schwartzel 7.85
3  Luke Donald 9.75
4  Hunter Mahan 9.95
5  Sergio Garcia 12.10

Below are the top 5 players in the Power Rankings from Rob Bolton:
  1. Luke Donald
  2. Jason Day
  3. Tiger Woods
  4. Ernie Els
  5. Sergio Garcia
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 World Match Play

We have 3 players in common this week: Donald, Woods, and Garcia

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

Number of Past Tournaments Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA1)Earnings Avg Weight (EA1)
525%25%
Number of Days Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA2)Earnings Avg Weight (EA2)
3015%15%
Number of Tournaments Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA3)Earnings Avg Weight (EA3)
410%10%

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.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Northern Trust Open Review

It is now time to review the picks for the Northern Trust Open to see how the results turned out.

Here are the results of the Tour Outsider (my) picks.
  1. Phil Mickelson | 21 | $66,000
  2. Jimmy Walker | 16 | $99,000
  3. Kevin Stadler | 42 | $23,760
  4. Sergio Garcia | 13 | $127,600
  5. Aaron Baddeley | 114 (MC) | $0
Here are the results for the Tour Insider's (Bolton's) picks.
  1. Ryan Moore | 27 | $45,870
  2. Jimmy Walker | 16 | $99,000
  3. Charl Schwartzel | 3 | $343,200
  4. Bill Haas | 3 | $343,200
  5. Phil Mickelson | 21 | $66,000
Here is the comparison of the results for our picks.


Tour OutsiderTour InsiderWinner
Total Earnings$316,360$897,270TI
Avg Rank41.214.0TI
Made Cut45TI
Outcome----TI

The Total Earnings category was won by the Tour Insider.

The Avg Rank category was won by the Tour Insider.

The Made Cut category was won by the Tour Insider.

The tournament overall was won by the Tour Insider.

The overall results between the Tour Outsider and the Tour Insider is 1 win to the Tour Outsider6 wins to the Tour Insider, and 0 draws.

Bolton had a wonderful tournament...the only thing he missed out on was a win by one of his picks.  He was close with Schwartzel and Haas.  They both finished 3rd.  Haas faltered a little down the stretch in the final round after leading going into the final round.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The Masters CLi Prediction as of 2013-02-13

This is a continuation of the weekly posts I started several weeks ago in which I post the current Golf CLi calculations for the 2013 Masters.  As mentioned before, the post was spurred by Alex Miceli's article regarding the current odds for the tournament.

I didn't see Alex post an updated version of the Vegas odds, so I grabbed them from another web site this week.

Here are the odds for the top 15 players for the 2013 Masters as of 2013-02-12.

# Player Odds
1 Tiger Woods  4/1
2 Rory McIlroy  13/2
3 Phil Mickelson  12/1
4 Luke Donald  25/1
5 Bubba Watson  25/1
6 Justin Rose  25/1
7 Lee Westwood  25/1
8 Adam Scott  25/1
9 Jason Dufner  30/1
10 Rickie Fowler  30/1
11 Dustin Johnson  30/1
12 Louis Oosthuizen  40/1
13 Nick Watney  40/1
14 Hunter Mahan  40/1
15 Matt Kuchar  40/1

Source: Vegas Insider

Here are the top 15 players in the CLi rankings for the 2013 Masters as of 2013-02-13.

# Player CLi 
1  Phil Mickelson 2.50
2  Charl Schwartzel 6.75
3  Jason Day 9.25
4  Brandt Snedeker 9.25
5  Bubba Watson 10.00
6  Matt Kuchar 11.00
7  Tiger Woods 11.50
8  Adam Scott 13.25
9  Fred Couples 14.25
10  Luke Donald 15.75
11  Ian Poulter 18.00
12  Lee Westwood 18.00
13  Hunter Mahan 18.75
14  Jim Furyk 19.50
15  Ryan Moore 20.25

Compared to last week, Mickelson has stayed on top, but his CLi figure has increased from 1.50 to 2.50.  And actually, all of the CLi figures has increased slightly compared to last week.  This indicates that the CLi predication is slightly weaker as compared to last week.

Here is the Golf CLi calculation configuration for these results:

Number of Past Tournaments Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA1)Earnings Avg Weight (EA1)
525%25%
Number of Days Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA2)Earnings Avg Weight (EA2)
300%0%
Number of Tournaments Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA3)Earnings Avg Weight (EA3)
425%25%

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.

Northern Trust Open

The US PGA Tour is at the famed Riviera Country Club this week to play the Northern Trust Open.

Below is the list of the top 15 players in the CLi rankings for the Northern Trust Open.

# Player
CLi 
1  Phil Mickelson 3.10
2  Fred Couples 8.05
3  Jimmy Walker 9.40
4  Kevin Stadler 10.55
5  Sergio Garcia 13.60
6  Aaron Baddeley 13.70
7  K.J. Choi 14.35
8  Luke Donald 15.90
9  Bill Haas 16.60
10  Matt Kuchar 16.60
11  Bubba Watson 17.95
12  Ryan Moore 18.75
13  Brendon De Jonge 19.20
14  Keegan Bradley 19.75
15  Webb Simpson 21.30

Mickelson (analysis) is showing to be a clear favorite this week, with a CLi figure of 3.10 (which is low) and his nearest competitor being close to 5 points higher (Couples, 8.05).  Thus, my first pick this week is Mickelson.

I am going to skip over Couples (analysis).  He has played well in the past at Riviera.  However, he is getting older and the main reason why he has a low CLi figure this week is because of his solid results on the Champions Tour.  One of the weaknesses of the CLi is that it doesn't let you selet which tours to use for results [ note to self: add that option in the configuration :-) ]

I am then going to select the next four players to round out my five picks for this week.

Walker (analysis) has placed 4th in this event the past two year and placed 3rd last week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Championship.  He also placed 4th three weeks ago at the Farmers Insurance Open.  So he he has played well in this event and is playing well leading up to this even this week.

Similarly, Stadler (analysis) has played solidly in this event and is playing well leading up to this event, albeit not as strong of results as Walker.  Stadler has finished in the top 30 in this event the past 4 years, with his best finish being 10th in 2010.  He also place 3rd last week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Championship.  And prior to the AT&T event, he finished 11th (Waste Management Phoenix Open) and 27th (Humana Challenge).

Garcia (analysis) has finished in the top 6 in two out of the last three years in this tournament.  Leading up to this tournament he has a 17th place finish in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and a 2nd place finish in the Commercialbank Qatar Masters.

Baddeley (analysis) has shown some consistent play recently, finishing 12th last week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Championship and 6th at the Farmers Insurance Open.  He won this event in 2011 and finished 11th last year.

Below are my 5 picks for the Northern Trust Open:

# Player CLi 
1  Phil Mickelson 3.10
2  Jimmy Walker 9.40
3  Kevin Stadler 10.55
4  Sergio Garcia 13.60
5  Aaron Baddeley 13.70

Below are the top 5 players in the Power Rankings from Rob Bolton:
  1. Ryan Moore
  2. Jimmy Walker
  3. Charl Schwartzel
  4. Bill Haas
  5. Phil Mickelson
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: Northern Trust Open

We have 2 players in common this week: Walker and Mickelson

Below are the settings for the CLi calculation I used for the Northern Trust Open:

Number of Past Tournaments Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA1)Earnings Avg Weight (EA1)
525%25%
Number of Days Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA2)Earnings Avg Weight (EA2)
305%5%
Number of Tournaments Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA3)Earnings Avg Weight (EA3)
420%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.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

AT&T Pebble Beach Review

It is now time to review the picks for the AT&T Pebble Beach Championship to see how the results turned out.

Here are the results of the Tour Outsider (my) picks.
  1. Phil Mickelson | 60 | $14,235
  2. Bob Estes | 30 | $36,205
  3. Steve Marino | 149 (MC) | $0
  4. Aaron Baddeley | 12 | $131,625
  5. Dustin Johnson | 90 (MC) | $0
Here are the results for the Tour Insider's (Bolton's) picks.
  1. Phil Mickelson | 60 | $14,235
  2. Brandt Snedeker | 1 | $1,170,000
  3. Dustin Johnson | 90 (MC) | $0
  4. Hunter Mahan | 16 | $94,250
  5. Padraig Harrington | 84 (MC) | $0
Here is the comparison of the results for our picks.


Tour OutsiderTour InsiderWinner
Total Earnings$182,605$1,728,485TI
Avg Rank68.250.2TI
Made Cut33DRAW
Outcome----TI

The Total Earnings category was won by the Tour Insider.

The Avg Rank category was won by the Tour Insider.

The Made Cut category was a draw.

The tournament overall was won by the Tour Insider.

The overall results between the Tour Outsider and the Tour Insider is 1 win to the Tour Outsider5 wins to the Tour Insider, and 0 draws.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

The Masters CLi Prediction as of 2013-02-06

Last week I posted the Golf CLi calculation results for the 2013 Masters.  The post was spurred by Alex Miceli's article regarding the current odds for the tournament.  So to continue with that I have rerun the Golf CLi calculation for the 2013 Masters.  The updated odds from Vegas (via Miceli's updated article) and the updated results from the Golf CLi are posted below.

Here are the odds for the top 15 players for the 2013 Masters as of 2013-02-06.

# Player Odds
1 TIGER WOODS 5-1
2 RORY McILROY 13-2
3 PHIL MICKELSON 12-1
4 LUKE DONALD 25-1
5 LEE WESTWOOD 25-1
6 ADAM SCOTT 25-1
7 JUSTIN ROSE 25-1
8 BUBBA WATSON 25-1
9 DUSTIN JOHNSON 25-1
10 LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN 25-1
11 BRANDT SNEDEKER 25-1
12 JASON DUFNER 30-1
13 RICKIE FOWLER 30-1
14 CHARL SCHWARTZEL 30-1
15 NICK WATNEY 30-1

Source: Miceli's article, slightly re-sorted to put the players in the proper order

Here are the top 15 players in the CLi rankings for the 2013 Masters as of 2013-02-06.

# Player CLi 
1  Phil Mickelson 1.50
2  Charl Schwartzel 5.00
3  Brandt Snedeker 9.50
4  Bubba Watson 10.25
5  Matt Kuchar 11.00
6  Adam Scott 12.25
7  Ryan Moore 12.50
8  Tiger Woods 12.50
9  Fred Couples 14.75
10  Jason Day 15.50
11  Jim Furyk 15.50
12  Luke Donald 15.75
13  Louis Oosthuizen 17.00
14  Lee Westwood 17.50
15  Ian Poulter 19.00

Mickelson won the Waste Management Phoenix Open last week, which has changes the results in the odds and the CLi rankings from last week.  In the odds from Vegas, Mickelson is still third behind McIlroy and Woods, but his odds improved from 15-1 to 12-1.  Whereas, in the CLi rankings, Mickelson jumped from 14th (and a CLi of 21.00) to 1st (and a CLi of 1.50).  [ Note: this large jump makes me wonder how affective the CLi is at predicting which player will play well this far in advance of the tournament being played.  Maybe the CLi configuration settings need to be modified -- I am learning. :-) ]

Here is the Golf CLi calculation configuration for these results:

Number of Past Tournaments Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA1)Earnings Avg Weight (EA1)
525%25%
Number of Days Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA2)Earnings Avg Weight (EA2)
300%0%
Number of Tournaments Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA3)Earnings Avg Weight (EA3)
425%25%

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.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

AT&T Pebble Beach Championship

The US PGA Tour is in northern California this week to play the AT&T Pebble Beach Championship.

Below is the list of the top 15 players in the CLi rankings for the AT&T Pebble Beach Championship.

# Player CLi 
1  Phil Mickelson 6.30
2  Bob Estes 8.60
3  Steve Marino 10.55
4  Aaron Baddeley 11.45
5  Jason Kokrak 12.05
6  Dustin Johnson 13.25
7  Josh Teater 16.05
8  Ricky Barnes 16.80
9  Tom Gillis 17.45
10  Charlie Wi 17.70
11  Richard Lee 18.40
12  Jason Day 19.30
13  Vijay Singh 20.20
14  Bryce Molder 21.45
15  Steven Bowditch 22.05

This week I have changed up the Golf CLi calculation a little.  I have put a larger weight on the past results of this tournament as opposed to how the player is playing leading up to the tournament this week.  80% of the calculation is based upon how well players have played in this tournament in the past five years, as opposed to the 50% that I normally put on the past instances of the tournament.

I am putting more weight on the past instances of the tournament after examining the results of the CLi for the 2012 and 2011 AT&T Pebble Beach Championships.  The players that played well in the tournament in the past have tended to play well in the current instance of the tournament.

[ see the end of this post for the details of the CLi configuration ]

From these results of the CLi caclulcation, I am going to go with the top 4 players: Mickelson (analysis), Estes (analysis), Marino (analysis), and Baddeley (analysis).

Mickelson won last week at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and won this tournament last year.  He also won the tournament in 2007 and 2005.  In 2011 and 2010, he finished 9th and 8th respectively.  So he tends to play well in this tournament AND he is playing well coming into this tournament this week.

Estes has played this event 3 times since 2000 and has placed 4th (2009), 16th (2010), and 15th (2012).  He has played one tournament this season, and finished 16th (Humana Challenge).

Marino skipped out on this tournament last year due to an injury.  However, before his injury, he finished 4th in 2011 and 2010 in this event.  He has played in three tournaments this season so far and has had mixed results -- 15th (Farmers Insurance Open), 82nd (Humana Challenge), and 59th (Sony Open).  Baddeley has finished 4th and 6th in this event the past two years.  Along with Marino, he has played in 3 tournament this season and has also had mixed results -- 65th (Waste Management Phoenix Open), 6th (Farmers Insurance Open), and 27th (Humana Challenge).  So for both of these players, I am looking to see their past results in this event be more of a factor than their current play.

For my final pick, I am skipping over Kokrak (analysis) and going to pick Johnson (analysis).  Johnson has won this event twice (2009 and 2010).  He placed 5th last year and he has already won a tournament this year (Hyundai Tournament of Champions).

Below are my 5 picks for the AT&T Pebble Beach Championship:

# Player CLi 
1  Phil Mickelson 6.30
2  Bob Estes 8.60
3  Steve Marino 10.55
4  Aaron Baddeley 11.45
5  Dustin Johnson 13.25

Below are the top 5 players in the Power Rankings from Rob Bolton:
  1. Phil Mickelson
  2. Brandt Snedeker
  3. Dustin Johnson
  4. Hunter Mahan
  5. Padraig Harrington
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: AT&T Pebble Beach Championship

We have 2 players in common this week: Mickelson and Johnson

Below are the settings for the CLi calculation I used for the AT&T Pebble Beach Championship:

Number of Past Tournaments Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA1)Earnings Avg Weight (EA1)
540%40%
Number of Days Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA2)Earnings Avg Weight (EA2)
305%5%
Number of Tournaments Looking Back
NumberScoring Avg Weight (SA3)Earnings Avg Weight (EA3)
45%5%


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.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Waste Management Phoenix Open Review

It is now time to review the picks for the Waste Management Phoenix Open to see how the results turned out.

Here are the results of the Tour Outsider (my) picks.
  1. Brandt Snedeker | 2 | $669,600
  2. Nick Watney | 43 | $19,881
  3. Bubba Watson | 15 | $111,600
  4. Phil Mickelson | 1 | $1,116,000
  5. Charles Howell III | 38 | $27,944
Here are the results for the Tour Insider's (Bolton's) picks.
  1. Jason Dufner | 75 (MC) | $0
  2. Brandt Snedeker | 2 | $669,600
  3. Nick Watney | 43 | $19,881
  4. Rickie Fowler | 75 (MC) | $0
  5. Charles Howell III | 38 | $27,944
Here is the comparison of the results for our picks.


Tour OutsiderTour InsiderWinner
Total Earnings$1,945,025$717,425TO
Avg Rank19.846.6TO
Made Cut53TO
Outcome----TO

The Total Earnings category was won by the Tour Outsider.

The Avg Rank category was won by the Tour Outsider.

The Made Cut category was won by the Tour Outsider.

The tournament overall was won by the Tour Outsider.

The overall results between the Tour Outsider and the Tour Insider is 1 win to the Tour Outsider4 wins to the Tour Insider, and 0 draws.

Ok, I finally got on the board this season....with a nice bang: picked the winner (Mickelson) and the 2nd place finisher (Snedeker).  It was a nice tournament by both Mickelson and Snedeker.  In addition, I had all five players make the cut, with the players have an average rank below 20.  I will take this type of finish each week. :-)