The 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club starts tomorrow amid several interesting storylines. Will Tiger be healthy enough to play (and if so, will he tell us before our fantasy draft starts)? Will Rory continue his dominance and retain his World Number 1 status, or will Adam Scott parlay his strong majors performance and regain the top spot? Or will a past champion like Padraig Harrington or Y.E. Yang reclaim Glory’s Last Shot?
As an administrator (and participant) of a Golf Majors pool, I like to know the world rankings and betting odds for the field to help inform the draft and facilitate automated picks. For this last major, I also wanted to know how the field has performed in this year’s prior majors. Here’s how they’ve fared in 2014 (must have played in at least one major).
| Player | The Masters | U.S. Open | British Open |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rickie Fowler | T5 | T2 | T2 |
| Adam Scott | T14 | T9 | T5 |
| Jim Furyk | T14 | T12 | 4 |
| Rory McIlroy | T8 | T23 | 1 |
| Jimmy Walker | T8 | T9 | T26 |
| Justin Rose | T14 | T12 | T23 |
| Jordan Spieth | T2 | T17 | T36 |
| Henrik Stenson | T14 | T4 | T39 |
| Chris Kirk | T14 | T28 | T19 |
| Matt Kuchar | T5 | T12 | T54 |
| Jason Day | T21 | T4 | T58 |
| Francesco Molinari | 50 | T23 | T15 |
| Louis Oosthuizen | 25 | T40 | T36 |
| Martin Kaymer | T31 | 1 | 70 |
| Brandt Snedeker | T37 | T9 | T58 |
| Bill Haas | T21 | T35 | T51 |
| Kevin Stadler | T8 | T63 | T39 |
| Stewart Cink | T14 | T54 | T47 |
| Gary Woodland | T26 | T52 | T39 |
| Keegan Bradley | CUT | T4 | T19 |
| Thomas Bjorn | T8 | T26 | |
| Graeme McDowell | CUT | T28 | T9 |
| Victor Dubuisson | CUT | T28 | T9 |
| Sergio Garcia | CUT | T35 | T2 |
| Ian Poulter | T21 | T17 | CUT |
| Stephen Gallacher | T34 | CUT | T15 |
| Phil Mickelson | CUT | T28 | T23 |
| Steve Stricker | T31 | T21 | |
| Brendon Todd | T17 | T39 | |
| Hunter Mahan | T26 | CUT | T32 |
| Billy Horschel | T37 | T23 | CUT |
| Ryan Moore | CUT | T48 | T12 |
| Brendon de Jonge | T37 | T28 | CUT |
| John Senden | T8 | CUT | T58 |
| Kevin Na | T12 | T54 | |
| Darren Clarke | T44 | CUT | T26 |
| Brooks Koepka | T4 | T67 | |
| Hideki Matsuyama | CUT | T35 | T39 |
| Thongchai Jaidee | T37 | CUT | T39 |
| Zach Johnson | CUT | T40 | T47 |
| Russell Henley | T31 | T60 | CUT |
| Kevin Streelman | T42 | CUT | T54 |
| Paul Casey | T56 | T47 | |
| Thorbjorn Olesen | T44 | T64 | |
| Bubba Watson | 1 | CUT | CUT |
| Jonas Blixt | T2 | CUT | CUT |
| Erik Compton | T2 | CUT | |
| Miguel Angel Jimenez | 4 | CUT | CUT |
| Marc Leishman | CUT | T5 | |
| Charl Schwartzel | CUT | CUT | T7 |
| Lee Westwood | 7 | CUT | CUT |
| Edoardo Molinari | T7 | ||
| Shane Lowry | CUT | T9 | |
| Robert Karlsson | T12 | ||
| Jamie Donaldson | T14 | CUT | CUT |
| J.B. Holmes | T17 | CUT | |
| George Coetzee | 18 | ||
| Angel Cabrera | CUT | CUT | T19 |
| Matteo Manassero | CUT | T19 | |
| Chris Wood | T23 | ||
| Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano | T26 | CUT | CUT |
| Joost Luiten | T26 | CUT | CUT |
| Ben Martin | T26 | ||
| Brian Harman | T26 | ||
| Steven Bowditch | T26 | ||
| Kenny Perry | T28 | ||
| David Hearn | T32 | ||
| K.J. Choi | T34 | CUT | |
| Patrick Reed | CUT | T35 | CUT |
| Ernie Els | CUT | T35 | CUT |
| Branden Grace | CUT | T36 | |
| Vijay Singh | T37 | ||
| Marc Warren | T39 | ||
| Koumei Oda | T39 | ||
| Nick Watney | T44 | CUT | CUT |
| Webb Simpson | CUT | T45 | CUT |
| Danny Willett | T45 | CUT | |
| Harris English | CUT | T48 | CUT |
| Jason Dufner | CUT | CUT | T51 |
| Tom Watson | CUT | T51 | |
| Seung Yul Noh | T52 | ||
| Matt Jones | CUT | CUT | T54 |
| Ryan Palmer | CUT | T58 | |
| Luke Donald | CUT | CUT | T64 |
| Boo Weekley | CUT | 66 | CUT |
| Charley Hoffman | T67 | ||
| Tiger Woods | 69 | ||
| Matt Every | CUT | CUT | 71 |
| Roberto Castro | CUT | CUT | CUT |
| Y.E. Yang | CUT | CUT | CUT |
| Graham Delaet | CUT | CUT | CUT |
| Pablo Larrazabal | CUT | CUT | |
| Bernd Wiesberger | CUT | CUT | |
| Hyung-Sung Kim | CUT | CUT | |
| Scott Stallings | CUT | CUT | |
| Ross Fisher | CUT | ||
| Padraig Harrington | CUT | ||
| Mikko Ilonen | CUT | ||
| Richard Sterne | CUT | ||
| Geoff Ogilvy | CUT | ||
| Shawn Stefani | CUT | ||
| Chesson Hadley | CUT | ||
| Brian Stuard | CUT | ||
| Chris Stroud | CUT | ||
| Cameron Tringale | CUT | ||
| Fredrik Jacobson | CUT | ||
| Kiradech Aphibarnrat | CUT | ||
| Rafael Cabrera-Bello | CUT | ||
| Anirban Lahiri | CUT | ||
| Tim Clark | CUT | ||
| George McNeill | CUT | ||
| Tommy Fleetwood | CUT | ||
| Brendan Steele | CUT | ||
| John Daly | CUT | ||
| Ryo Ishikawa | CUT |
No big surprises here. Rickie Fowler has been sniffing at a major championship all year, falling short to two dominant performances by Kaymer and McIlory. Some other folks have been quietly consistent, like Jimmy Walker and Chris Kirk (haven’t heard their names on the Golf Channel all week). I was surprised to see normally consistent players turn in poor performances for the year (looking at you Jason Dufner and Angel Cabrera).
Hope this information helps your golf handicapping/gambling purposes! If you have any other suggestions for stats/blog posts please let me know!