Tampa Bay Championship

The US PGA Tour is on the west coast of Florida this week to play the Tampa Bay Championship.

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

#	Player	CLi
1	Webb Simpson	8.90
2	Luke Donald	10.85
3	Sergio Garcia	11.40
4	Matt Kuchar	13.45
5	Sang-moon Bae	14.20
6	Scott Stallings	15.40
7	Scott Piercy	21.35
8	Michael Thompson	23.35
9	Jim Furyk	24.85
10	Jimmy Walker	26.25
11	K.J. Choi	30.05
12	David Toms	31.65
13	Bryce Molder	34.90
14	Jason Day	36.20
15	Ernie Els	36.25

I am going with the top 3 players in the CLi rankings: Simpson (analysis), Donald (analysis), Garcia (analysis), and Kuchar (analysis).

Simpson has finished 10th, 2nd, and 3rd in this event the past three years.  Prior to his 20th place finish last week at the Cadillac Championship, he finished 5th (Accenture World Match Play) and 6th (Northern Trust Open).

Donald, although he didn't do well when I picked him last week in the Cadillac Championship, he is playing well overall coming into this tournament.  Prior to his 43rd place finish last week, he had finished 17th (Accenture World Match Play) and 16th (Northern Trust Open).  He likes this event, having won this event last year and finished 6th the previous year.

Garcia finished 3rd in the Cadillac Championship last week..and could have finished solo 2nd if he hadn't hit his 2nd shot in the water on the 72nd hole.  Prior to last week he had finished 17th (Accenture World Match Play) and 13th (Northern Trust Open).  He has finished 16th and 15th in this event the past two years.

Kuchar has finished 10th and 12th in this event the past two years, and seems to like the Innsbruck course and this event.  He is playing well coming into the tournament having won the Accenture World Match Play several weeks ago.  However, he only had a lackluster showing last week in the Cadillac Championship, finishing in the middle of the pack (35th).

For my fifth pick, I am going to skip down several spots and pick Furyk (analysis).  He has finished 2nd and 1st two of the last three years in this event.  He has made the cut in all 4 events he has played in this year, with his lowest finish being 13th in the Northern Trust Open.

Below are my 5 picks for the Tampa Bay Championship:

#	Player	CLi
1	Webb Simpson	8.90
2	Luke Donald	10.85
3	Sergio Garcia	11.40
4	Matt Kuchar	13.45
5	Jim Furyk	24.85

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

1. Sergio Garcia
2. Webb Simpson
3. Adam Scott
4. Luke Donald
5. Jason Dufner

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: Tampa Bay Championship

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

Below are the settings for the CLi calculation I used for the Tamp Bay 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.

Puerto Rico Open Review

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

Here are the results of the Tour Outsider (my) picks.

1. Kevin Stadler | 71 | $6,825
2. Scott Brown | 1 | $630,000
3. George McNeill | 56 | $7,700
4. Bryce Molder | 30 | $19,911
5. Graham Delaet | 18 | $44,100

Here are the results for the Tour Insider's (Bolton's) picks.

1. Bryce Molder | 30 | $19,911
2. Matt Jones | 14 | $61,250
3. Kevin Stadler | 71 | $6,825
4. Josh Teater | 38 | $12,295
5. Graham Delaet | 18 | $44,100

Here is the comparison of the results for our picks.

	Tour Outsider	Tour Insider	Winner
Total Earnings	$708,536	$144,381	TO
Avg Rank	35.2	34.2	TI
Made Cut	5	5	DRAW
Outcome	--	--	DRAW

The Total Earnings category was won by the Tour Outsider.

The Avg Rank category was won by the Tour Insider.

The Made Cut category was a draw.

The tournament overall was a draw.

The overall results between the Tour Outsider and the Tour Insider is 2 wins to the Tour Outsider, 7 wins to the Tour Insider, and 2 draws.

Dang it, another tournament that was a wash (a draw) this week.  As with the Cadillac Championship, I won the earnings category, Bolton won the average rank category, and the cut category was a draw.  One of my picks, Brown, won his PGA event (Congratulations to Brown!!!), but my other picks couldn't stand up to Bolton's in terms of playing decently -- although all 10 of our players made the cut (veyr nice).  It all boiled down to the final round when McNeill (one of my picks) shot 76 and dropped from 8th place to 56th place.  Ouch for McNeill, and for me.

I wasn't able to capitalize on the two tournaments this week, even after winning the total earnings categories for both the Puerto Rico Open and the Cadillac Championship.

Cadillac Championship Review

It is now time to review the picks for the Cadillac Championship to see how the results turned out.

Here are the results of the Tour Outsider (my) picks.

1. Matt Kuchar | 35 | $68,500
2. Charl Schwartzel | 16 | $98,000
3. Luke Donald | 43 | $60,500
4. Steve Stricker | 2 | $880,000
5. Justin Rose | 8 | $163,750

Here are the results for the Tour Insider's (Bolton's) picks.

1. Matt Kuchar | 35 | $68,500
2. Charl Schwartzel | 16 | $98,000
3. Justin Rose | 8 | $163,750
4. Hunter Mahan | 25 | $79,000
5. Graeme McDowell | 3 | $417,500

Here is the comparison of the results for our picks.

	Tour Outsider	Tour Insider	Winner
Total Earnings	$1,270,750	$826,750	TO
Avg Rank	20.8	17.4	TI
Made Cut	5	5	DRAW
Outcome	--	--	DRAW

The Total Earnings category was won by the Tour Outsider.

The Avg Rank category was won by the Tour Insider.

The Made Cut category was a draw.

The tournament overall was a draw.

The overall results between the Tour Outsider and the Tour Insider is 2 wins to the Tour Outsider, 7 wins to the Tour Insider, and 1 draw.

This tournament was a wash (a draw).  I won the earnings category, Bolton won the average rank category, and the cut category was a draw since there wasn't a cut in this event.  I just needed Donald to finish 26th or better and I would have won this tournament over Bolton.  Instead, Donald finished 43rd and will probably turn on the burners and play well this coming week in the Tampa Bay Championship (as opposed to the Cadillac Championship last week).  Thus, the question becomes....do I include Donald in my picks for the Tampa Bay Championship since he won it last year?

The Masters CLi Prediction as of 2013-03-06

This is a continuation of the weekly posts I started on January 30th 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.  I have since posted an update each week: Feb 6th, Feb 13th, Feb 20th, and Feb 27th.  Therefore, this is the 6th update of the predictions for next month's Masters.  The tournament is just over a month away.

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 2013-03-06.

#	Player	Odds
1	Tiger Woods	11/2
2	Rory McIlroy	18/1
3	Charl Schwartzel	18/1
4	Justin Rose	18/1
5	Luke Donald	20/1
6	Matt Kuchar	20/1
7	Lee Westwood	25/1
8	Keegan Bradley	25/1
9	Graeme McDowell	30/1
10	Phil Mickelson	30/1
11	Bubba Watson	30/1
12	Nick Watney	30/1
13	Webb Simpson	30/1
14	Ian Poulter	30/1
15	Rickie Fowler	30/1

Source: Vegas Insider

Tiger stayed on top with the best odds.  Actually, the first 4 players didn't change as compared to last week's odds: Woods, McIlroy, Schwartzel, and Rose.  Oosthuizen fell out of the top 15, and Donald and Kuchar were big movers up.  Mickelson and Watson moved into the top 15 as well.

Here are the top 15 players in the CLi rankings for the 2013 Masters as of 2013-03-06.

#	Player	CLi
1	Phil Mickelson	1.75
2	Jason Day	3.50
3	Tiger Woods	5.00
4	Matt Kuchar	6.50
5	Charl Schwartzel	8.25
6	Brandt Snedeker	9.25
7	Hunter Mahan	9.50
8	Steve Stricker	14.00
9	Justin Rose	15.50
10	Lee Westwood	15.75
11	Luke Donald	16.75
12	Ryan Moore	16.75
13	Bubba Watson	16.75
14	Fred Couples	17.50
15	Fredrik Jacobson	17.75

Mickelson has regained the top spot after being moved to 2nd place last week.  As a result, Day moved down a spot to 2nd.  Tiger moved up to 3rd from 5th.  Stricker and Rose also moved up several spots.  Westwood was a big mover, placing 10th this week after not being in the top 15 last week.  The last time Westwood was in the top 15h was back on Feb 13th.  Jacobson moved down from 9th to 15th. 

Here is the Golf CLi calculation configuration for these results:

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	0%	0%
Number of Tournaments Looking Back
Number	Scoring Avg Weight (SA3)	Earnings Avg Weight (EA3)
4	25%	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.

Puerto Rico Open

The US PGA Tour has two tournament taking place this week: 1) the Cadillac Championship, and 2) the Puerto Rico Open.  This post is for the Puerto Rico Open.  The post for the Cadillac Championship can be found here.

Below is the list of the top 15 players in the CLi rankings for the Puerto Rico Open.

#	Player	CLi
1	Kevin Stadler	8.15
2	Scott Brown	10.55
3	George McNeill	12.80
4	Brendon De Jonge	13.40
5	Bryce Molder	13.60
6	Graham Delaet	14.80
7	Boo Weekley	16.60
8	Henrik Stenson	16.75
9	Matt Jones	16.80
10	Nicholas Thompson	22.85
11	Justin Hicks	23.90
12	Angel Cabrera	25.95
13	Matthew Every	27.30
14	Bill Lunde	29.55
15	James Driscoll	32.00

For this tournament, I am going with the top 3 in the CLi rankings: Stadler (analysis), Brown (analysis), and McNeill (analysis).

Stadler didn't finish too well last week in the Honda Classic (58th place), however, has finished 3rd (AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am) and 11th (Waste Management Phoenix Open) in two of his last three events.  In addition, he has not missed a cut in this event yet, and placed 7th last year.

Brown finished 5th in this event last year, the only time he has played in the event.  He is also coming in playing hot this week, with a 7th and 3rd place finish in the Colombia Championship and the Panama Claro Championship -- both Web.com Tour events.  He finished 30th in the AT&T Pebble Beach Prom Am in early February, his only US PGA tour event this season.

McNeill won this event last year, and placed 5th the previous year -- the only two times he has played in the event.  He comes into this week having finished 41st in the Honda Classic last week, and 33rd in the Northern Turst Open the previous week.  He has played in 5 tournaments this season, and has made the cut in all 5 events.

I am going to skip over De Jonge (analysis), and pick Molder (analysis) and Delaet (analysis).

Molder missed the cut in this event in 2011, but finished 7th and 13th the previous two years.  He has yet to miss a cut this season (has played in 5 events), with his best finish being 12th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am a month ago.

Delaet finished 8th in this event last year, and finished 9th last week at the Honda Classic.  In addition, he finished 21st in the Northern Trust Open several weeks ago, and 9th in the Farmer Insurance Open.  However, he did miss the cut at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Below are my 5 picks for the Puerto Rico Open:

#	Player	CLi
1	Kevin Stadler	8.15
2	Scott Brown	10.55
3	George McNeill	12.80
4	Bryce Molder	13.60
5	Graham Delaet	14.80

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

1. Bryce Molder
2. Matt Jones
3. Kevin Stadler
4. Josh Teater
5. Graham DeLaet

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: Puerto Rico Open

We have 3 players in common this week: Molder, Stadler, and DeLaet

Below are the settings for the CLi calculation I used for the Puerto Rico 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.

Cadillac Championship

The US PGA Tour moves to further south in Florida to play another World Golf Championship:  Cadillac Championship.  There is also a second tournament taking place this week which the US PGA Tour is sanctioning, the Puerto Rico Open.  The post for that tournament can be found here.

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

#	Player	CLi
1	Matt Kuchar	5.05
2	Charl Schwartzel	7.25
3	Luke Donald	10.20
4	Steve Stricker	12.25
5	Justin Rose	12.60
6	Phil Mickelson	13.35
7	Rory McIlroy	15.00
8	Bill Haas	15.65
9	Keegan Bradley	15.75
10	Hunter Mahan	16.45
11	Tiger Woods	19.70
12	Bubba Watson	20.65
13	Nick Watney	21.90
14	Jason Day	22.75
15	Jim Furyk	23.75

I am going with the top 5 players in the CLi rankings: Kuchar (analysis), Schwartzel (analysis), Donald (analysis), Stricker (analysis), and Rose (analysis).

Kuchar and Schwartzel have CLi figures below 10, which is usually a good sign they have an advantage over the rest of the field.

Kuchar has placed 8th, 5th, and 3rd the last 3 times he has played in this event.  He also won several weeks ago at the Accenture Match Play Championship...he couldn't miss a putt in that event.  If he is putting well this week, his name will be high up on the leaderboard come the final round.

Schwartzel has been in fine form this year, with only a negative blip at the Acenture Match Play Championship.  He finished 9th last week at the Honda Classic, and 3rd and 2nd at the Northern Trust Open and the Joburg Open.

Donald has dropped to 3rd in the world golf rankings, but that is not his worry this week.  He is focused on winning at Doral.  He has finished 6th the past two years, and likes the course.  He has finished 16th in the only medal play tournament he has played in this year, which was at the Northern Trust Open.

Fellow Illini, Steve Stricker, is on a scaled back schedule this year.  But the tournaments he has finished 5th and 2nd in the two tournament he has played in.  In addition, has figured out Doral after the 2006 event, as he has yet to miss the cut since 2007.  He finished 8th here last year, and has finished 18th or better since 2008.

Rose won this event last year, and looks to continue his solid play this year by finishing well here again this year.  He finished 4th at the Honda Classic last week.  His worse finish in the 4 tournaments he has played in this year is 17th (Accenture World Golf Championship).

Below are my 5 picks for the Cadillac Championship:

#	Player	CLi
1	Matt Kuchar	5.05
2	Charl Schwartzel	7.25
3	Luke Donald	10.20
4	Steve Stricker	12.25
5	Justin Rose	12.60

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

1. Matt Kuchar
2. Charl Schwartzel
3. Justin Rose
4. Hunter Mahan
5. Graeme McDowell

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: Cadillac Championship

We have 3 players in common this week: Kuchar, Schwartzel, and Rose

Below are the settings for the CLi calculation I used for the Cadillac 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.

Honda Classic Review

It is now time to review the picks for the Honda Classic to see how the results turned out.

Here are the results of the Tour Outsider (my) picks.

1. Charl Schwartzel | 9 | $156,000
2. Fredrik Jacobson | 25 | $47,850
3. Kevin Stadler | 58 | $13,200
4. Lee Westwood | 9 | $156,000
5. Tiger Woods | 37 | $27,600

Here are the results for the Tour Insider's (Bolton's) picks.

1. Charl Schwartzel | 9 | $156,000
2. Graeme McDowell | 9 | $156,000
3. Tiger Woods | 37 | $27,600
4. Fredrik Jacobson | 25 | $47,850
5. Justin Rose | 4 | $226,200

Here is the comparison of the results for our picks.

	Tour Outsider	Tour Insider	Winner
Total Earnings	$400,650	$613,650	TI
Avg Rank	27.6	16.8	TI
Made Cut	5	5	DRAW
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 2 wins to the Tour Outsider, 7 wins to the Tour Insider, and 0 draws.

Bolton did rather well this week with 3 players in the top 10, including a 4th place finish (Rose).  An average rank of 16.8 for the 5 players is also a very strong figure for that category.