About Golf Predictor The Golf Statistics & Predictions Service

This page highlights some of the extensive European PGA and US PGA Tour golf statistics and charts available on Golf Predictor. The golf predictions engine and the developer/motivation behind the site are also described. You can also see video demonstrations of most site functionality on the Golf Predictor YouTube channel.

Golf Predictor Overview

Golf Predictor uses the latest available golf statistics to try and predict the outcome of future professional golf tournaments on the European PGA and US PGA tours. There are two main parts to the Golf Predictor system: the golf statistics analyser and the golf predictions engine.

This page describes both parts and outlines some of the many features available on Golf Predictor for DFS PGA, Fantasy golf and golf betting enthuasiasts. Please click an option on the left, scroll down or watch the short animation below for more information.

The Golf Statistics Analyser

The golf statistics analyser number crunches all the main statistics for each golfer on the tournament entry list. The golf predictions engine then uses an algorithm on this information to try and predict the finishing position of each golfer. The golf statistics analyser is based on hard data and calculates a range of statistics, including the recent, GP season (calendar year) and historical (course, tournament, similar length course, similar weather conditions and similar tournament) performance for each golfer in the tournament.

You can see information such as who has the most wins, the most top tens and the least cuts missed, the longest cut streak and the longest winless streak. It also calculates the GP season scoring average across both the European PGA and US PGA tours for each competing player and the historical scoring average for the course, tournament and last 12 similar events. There is also a myriad of golf statistics on every tournament, golfer, GP season and course on the European PGA/US PGA Tour since 2003. In addition, you can also see at a glance the historical performances for a golfer in all tournaments since 2003 and see easily which golfers play better compared to their peers at certain times of the year (early/mid/late season).

The Golf Predictions Engine

The golf predictions engine uses the above mentioned golf statistics to generate player rankings for the next tournament. The ranking for each golfer is normalised to a percentage chance (called the GP Score) of winning the tournament. The approximate fair odds for each golfer is also calculated from his GP Score. These are the only subjective metrics generated by Golf Predictor; every performance statistic on the site is calculated from actual golfer results. Unfortunately, golfers are not machines, but the golf predictions engine will tell you who is most likely to perform in the next event.

The various golf prediction pages also allow you to ascertain useful information like who the form golfers are, who is the most/least consistent, who has the most wins, the highest winning percentage, the most top ten finishes, the highest top ten finishing percentage, the least cuts missed, the lowest missed cuts percentage, the best performance over the GP season (calendar year) in every round of a tournament or the best average first round on the course/in the tournament/in similar events in the past. You can also directly compare the main prediction statistics, the recent/historical/similar tournament form (last 10 results) and the field rankings (in 13 key performance statistics) for up to 10 competing golfers at a time. You can also create your own custom predictions, filter the field predictions by over 50 metrics and rank the entire field by over 20 key performance statistics. All these features will help you make informed decisions when deciding on golf betting picks or choosing fantasy golfers.

More Features

The screenshots below illustrate a small subset of the golf statistics (numeric and visual) available for a golfer/tournament. More of the main Golf Predictor features are outlined below and the complete list of features available for the Golf Predictions is on the Golf Predictor blog.

Golf Predictor Screenshots

Get a flavour of what Golf Predictor has to offer for DFS PGA, fantasy golf and golf betting enthuasiasts. This section displays a number of screenshots of some of the features you can expect for all tournaments on the European PGA/US PGA Tour and the golfers participating in them. A more comprehensive list of Golf Predictor features is displayed in the next section below.

The first screenshot shows the top ten in the Golf Predictor rankings for the 2015 Masters on the European/US PGA Tour:

Golf Predictor Sample Prediction Data Image - Tournament

All the above columns (there is a key provided on the page for the abbreviations in the column headers, e.g. SLC = Similar Length Course) are sortable for the entire field and you can hover over a golfer name for more golf statistics, as shown above for eventual winner Jordan Spieth. You can also view various golf statistics graphically by selecting one of the field chart links shown above. For example, clicking on the 'Best in Last 5 Events' chart will show the golfers in the field with the best average finishing position in their last 5 events in the current GP season (calendar year). This chart for the 2015 Masters is shown below:

Golf Predictor Sample Prediction Data Image - Form Golfers

Hovering over a bar will display more golf statistics for that player, as shown above for Jason Day. Note that you can change the orientation of Golf Predictor charts with names to horizontal if you so wish. Clicking on a golfer name in the golf predictions list (first screenshot above) will show a tabbed golf prediction page similar to that shown below. This image shows a subset of the golf statistics available for Jordan Spieth ahead of the 2015 Masters:

Golf Predictor Sample Prediction Data Image - Golfer

Clicking on any tab will show more relevant information. Hovering over a tournament name in a results table displays more golf statistics, as shown above for the 2015 Valero Texas Open. Clicking on the chart icon link beside "Average Position" (GP Season panel) or "GP Season Results" (tournament results list) on the Season tab of the golf prediction page will display the chart shown below. This is a visual representation of Spieth's season form up to the selected tournament.

Golf Predictor Chart Sample Image

Hovering on a data point will show golf statistics for that week, as shown for week 9 above. There is also a wealth of golf statistics available for each tournament. Clicking on any tournament link (e.g. on the golf predictions page above) will bring up a screen similar to below:

Golf Predictor Sample Prediction Data Image - Tournament Stats

This shows the golf statistics for the 2015 Masters. Clicking on a tab shows more relevant information and hovering over a golfer in the results table displays more information, as shown above. Clicking on any of the the chart links in the 'Round Scores' section of the Performance tab on the tournament statistics page will show a chart similar to below:

Golf Predictor Sample Prediction Data Image - Score Distribution Chart

This chart shows the distribution of scores for the entire tournament ('Overall Chart'). Hovering on a bar will show more golf statistics, as shown for the '65-69' range above. There are also charts that show information such as the shortest and longest courses used on the European and US PGA Tours, either in a GP season or overall since 2003. For example, the chart below shows the longest courses used on the US PGA Tour in the 2014 GP season:

Golf Predictor Sample Prediction Data Image - Longest Courses used in 2008 GP Season

Hovering on a bar will show more details, as shown above. Google Maps has also been integrated into Golf Predictor. This allows you to view the location of a course (single point on map), the location of all tournaments on the US PGA Tour or the European PGA tour in a given year (multiple points on the map) or the location of all the tournaments played by any golfer in any year since 2003 (multiple points). The screenshot below shows the tournaments played by Louis Oosthuizen in 2014 (Note that some of his tournaments are off-screen on the moveable map):

Golf Predictor Sample Prediction Data Image - Gogle Maps: Tournaments played by golfer in 2014 GP Season

Hovering over a flag marker on the map will display some golf statistics, as shown above.

More Golf Predictor Features

The screenshots above can only show a small subset of Golf Predictor features. Some of the other more advanced features available include:

You can Register for Golf Predictor and have a look around or check out the Golf Predictor blog for enhancements to the golf predictions and other related information.

About the Developer of Golf Predictor

Golf Predictor was created by Aidan Reilly (me!), an Irish software developer based in the West of Ireland. The idea originally came from reading about computerised stock market predictors. I decided to combine my coding skills (such as they are!) and my love of golf to do something similar for European and US PGA Tour events. Golf is particularly suited to such an endeavour as it is an individual sport known to be relatively honourable. I was also very frustrated by the lack of a single, inexpensive and easy to use source of relevant performance statistics when playing fantasy golf or having the occasional flutter on a tournament.

Hence, I started work on Golf Predictor to address these issues in late 2007 and launched it in May 2008. Suddenly all the most important statistics were instantly available for the entire field in a variety of ways via an attractive user friendly interface. This has made finding good fantasy golf picks or value golf bets very easy! Since launch, the site has been continually enhanced with more and more useful statistics and charts. It also has received several minor and two major facelifts along the way. Golf Predictor was developed originally when I had a small IT consulting company, but I now run it on an individual basis. I used to charge a modest sum for full access, but now it is FREE. When you weigh up the statistics/functionality provided and the time saved, hopefully you'll agree that it is great value! If you have any feedback or questions, please get in touch via the Contact GP page.

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