Wednesday, August 24, 2016

2016-2017 PGA Tour Season Preview and Predictions

The 2015-2016 PGA Tour Season is winding down and it's about time to review my predictions from last year and make some new ones for this year

Successes from last years predictions

I was able to pick correctly 2 correct winners for the tournaments. I had Brandt Snedeker winning the Farmers Insurance Open and Jason Day winning the WGC Match Play

I correctly was able to pick 13 winners this year even though I did not pick the correct tournament Danny Lee, Jimmy Walker, Tony Finau, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Bubba Watson, Adam Scott, Jason Dufner, Hideki Matsuyama, Kevin Kisner, Charlie Hoffman, Ryan Moore.

Even though they do not have the Comeback Player of the Year Award and I was unaware of that I correctly predicted KJ Choi to have a bounceback year even though he hasn't won a tournament.

Failures from last year

I had Steven Bowditch winning a tournament. You can basically pencil Steven Bowditch in for last or close to it every tournament he plays in

I had Tiger Woods winning two tournaments including at Augusta. Tiger hasn't played all year

I had Oliver Schneiderjans winning a tournament, he did not have PGA Tour Status this year

I had Tim Clark winning a tournament this year he finished this year 205th in the Fedex Cup

I had Eddie Pepperell winning The Open, he was not even close to qualifying for The Open.


So here are my predictions for every tournament this season

Safeway Open: Jamie Lovemark

CIMB Classic: John Senden

Sanderson Farms Championship: Wesley Bryan

WGC HSBC Champions:  Bubba Watson

Shriner's Hospital For Children's Open: Bud Cauley

OHL Classic at Mayakoba: Tony Finau

The RSM Classic: Luke Donald

World Cup of Golf: Thailand Thongchai Jaidee and Kiradech Aphibarnrat

Hero World Challenge: Jason Day

Franklin Templeton Shootout: Zach Johnson and Patrick Rodgers

Tournament of Champions: Jimmy Walker

Sony Open in Hawaii: Patrick Reed

CareerBuilder Challenge: Charlie Hoffman

Farmers Insurance Open: Ryan Palmer

Waste Management Phoenix Open: Russell Knox

AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am: Matt Kuchar

Genesis Open: Adam Scott

The Honda Classic: Russell Henley

WGC: Mexico Championship: Hideki Matsuyama

Valspar Championship: Dustin Johnson

Arnold Palmer Invitational: Jordan Spieth

WGC Match Play: Rory McIlroy

Puerto Rico Open: Oliver Schneiderjans

Shell Houston Open: Bill Haas

Masters Tournament: Bubba Watson

RBC Heritage: Matt Jones

Valero Texas Open: Jimmy Walker

Zurich Classic of New Orleans: Justin Rose

Wells Fargo Championship: Jim Furyk

The Players Championship: Danny Lee

AT&T Byron Nelson: Richy Werenski

Dean And DeLuca Invitational: Jordan Spieth

The Memorial Tournament: David Lingmerth

Fedex St. Jude Classic: Tiger Woods

U.S. Open: Louis Oosthuizen

Travelers Championship: Steve Stricker

Quicken Loans National: Dustin Johnson

The Greenbrier Classic: Daniel Berger

John Deere Classic: Jordan Spieth

Barbasol Championship: Seung Yul Noh

The Open Championship: Charl Schwartzel

RBC Canadian Open: Jon Rahm

Barracuda Championship: JJ Spaun

WGC Bridgestone Invitational: Sergio Garcia

PGA Championship: Matthew Fitzpatrick

Wyndham Championship: Scott Brown

Northern Trust Open: Scott Piercy

Deutsche Bank Championship: Rory McIlroy

BMW Championship: Jason Day

Tour Championship: Jason Day

Fedex Cup Champion: Jason Day

Presidents Cup Rosters

USA

1. Jordan Spieth
2. Dustin Johnson
3. Bubba Watson
4. Jimmy Walker
5. Patrick Reed
6. Zach Johnson
7. Phil Mickelson
8. Matt Kuchar
9. Tiger Woods
10. Rickie Fowler
11. Scott Piercy
12. Jim Furyk


International

1. Jason Day
2. Adam Scott
3. Louis Oosthuizen
4. Charl Schwartzel
5. Branden Grace
6. Hideki Matsuyama
7. Danny Lee
8. Byeong Hun An
9. Emiliano Grillo
10. Thongchai Jaidee
11. Kiradech Aphibarnrat
12. Vijay Singh

Prediction Winner USA 16-14













Sunday, August 21, 2016

The Ideal Olympics

So with the Olympics ending today I thought it would be a good idea to come up with a list of sports that should be added to future Olympics

Baseball/Softball

While baseball and softball are America's pastime they also have great appeal over many countries across the world. The issue is that the Olympics usually fall in August which is in the middle of the MLB season so MLB players may not be able to participate. It may be a good idea for MLB to do what hockey does and have a break in the MLB season every Olympic year for the athletes to participate.

Match Play Golf

While this years Olympic golf has not been able to get the most high profile stars to participate and has had to settle for lesser known stars such as Espen Kofstad and Rodolfo Cazaubon instead, it should still be a great event. I think it would be even better to grow the game to do a match play competition as well, as match play is a great format that would attract a lot of fans.

1000m IM

Swimming is always a great sport to watch, and the quick races are always high drama and intensity. However, these swimmers are great athletes and I think a race like a 1000 IM would be a great test of athletes endurance and be very entertaining to watch

Ultramarathon

The long distance running events are always great to watch, however the fact that the runners are just running around on a track can get a little bit boring and can cause dizziness and headaches for some viewers, that's why I feel an event like the Ultramarathon which is a race that is longer than a marathon would be a great


Poker and Billiards

These two games I think would be great to add to the Olympics because they both require a lot of skill and precision and have some popularity around the world.

Racing

While there is biking in the Olympics I think a good addition would be some kind of car race, not necessarily Nascar as building a track would be an unnecessary expense but some kind of race around the countryside with all the best racers in the world, would definitely draw a huge fanbase

Football

While one kind of football is already in the Olympics, I believe another one deserves to be in it as well. The NFL wants to expand to London in the very near future and soon after that it will probably want teams all over Europe and all over the rest of the world. Many of these people have never seen nor understand the American version of football, so if it is added to the Olympics then these people may finally get a chance to see the sport and maybe grow to like it, and that could draw more talent from all around the world.

40 Yard Dash

The 40 yard dash is always one of the most exciting things to watch at the NFL Combine and I think it would be a great Olympic sport. No other sport would require you to start off sprinting your absolute fastest right away in order to win, and I think that would be great for the Olympics.