This week's field includes:
- Of all the marquee events on the PGA Tour in 2007 this could have the worst field. The event has Phil Mickelson to thank for making it credible.
- The field includes only one player of the top 30 in the latest Official World Golf Rankings, Phil Mickelson. Going further down the list there are nine top-50 players from the world rankings, Chad Campbell, Ian Poulter, Joe Durant, Carl Pettersson, Paul Goydos, Lucas Glover, Ben Crane and Mike Weir.
- The field includes six of the top 25 of last years PGA Tour money list. The ones in the field are Phil Mickelson, Joe Durant, Chad Campbell, Carl Pettersson, Lucas Glover and Tom Pernice, Jr.
- The field includes 15 past champions: Chad Campbell - 2006, Justin Leonard - 2005, Phil Mickelson - 2004 & '02, Mike Weir - 2003, Joe Durant - 2001, Jesper Parnevik - 2000, David Duval - 1999, Fred Couples - 1998, John Cook - 1992 & '97, Mark Brooks - 1996, Kenny Perry - 1995, Corey Pavin - 1991 & '87, Steve Jones - 1989, Donnie Hammond - 1986 and Keith Fergus - 1983
A perfect way for fantasy golfers to check on the past performance of all the players in the Bob Hope Chrysler field are these performance charts, one with the players listed alphabetically and the other with the players listed by average finish.
One last way to check who is the best is through a special formula worked out in Golfstats that gives us the best average performances at the Bob Hope in the last five years.
Who is hot and who is not:
Even though the PGA Tour has only had one event in 60 days, there have been other events in which players have participated in. Here is a look at some of the hot players that are playing this week:
Paul Goydos finished 2nd in the Chrysler Championship at the end of 2006 and won last week in Sony.
Charles Howell III, finished 2nd in the Sony Open.
Will MacKenzie finished T4th in the Mercedes and T42nd in Sony Open.
Craig Kanada finished T10th last week in the Sony Open.
Here are some of the players I would avoid this week:
Chad Campbell finished third to last at the Mercedes, then T46th at Sony.
Tim Herron finished T19th at the Mercedes, missed cut at Sony.
Eric Axley finished 26th at the Mercedes then T48th in Sony.
Carl Pettersson finished T22nd at the Mercedes, missed cut at Sony.
Ben Curtis finished dead last at the Mercedes then missed cut at Sony.
Who to Watch for at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic:
11 weeks ago Larry Bohannan of the Desert Sun had this great article in which he had a scientific way of determining this year's champion. We would link to the page but unfortunely the link doesn't work so we will summarize it here, remember this isn't my thoughts but Bohannan and I hope the Desert Sun doesn't mind us sharing this with you:
Each of the last four Hope winners share five characteristics: they had previous wins on tour, failed to win a tournament the preceding year, played at least once for their country in a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup, were top-125 money winners the previous year and were between 31 and 33 years old.
So whittle down the list of potential winners based on those criteria (and a history of actually playing in the Hope, of course) and it's possible to come up with a winner for January's event.
So, beginning with the top 125 money winners of this year, we start with ...
Failed to win this year: This doesn't help much, since it eliminates only the 35 winners. We're down to 90 golfers, which moves us to ...
Previous PGA Tour winner: Now we're getting somewhere. The 90 players are chopped down to 48, meaning that 42 of the top 125 this year are still looking for their first PGA Tour victory. The last player to make the Hope his first victory was Donnie Hammond in 1986. So down to 48, we continue to whittle with ...
Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup: Suddenly we're down to 25 players. Leaving the conversation are players such as Tom Pernice, Ben Crane, Bob Estes and Jason Gore. The last non-Cup player to win the Hope was Joe Durant in 2001. With just over two dozen players remaining, we next move to ...
A history of Hope appearances: Goodbye, Ernie Els. Goodbye, Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott and a few others who don't play early PGA Tour events. Now we're down to 15 players, and one of those, Chris DiMarco, may miss the Hope to defend a victory on the European Tour. This leads us to ...
Player in his early 30s: OK, let's expand this to players in their 30s to be fair. Eliminated here are names such as past Hope winners and 40-somethings Fred Couples, Kenny Perry and Jesper Parnevik and 2006 runner-up Scott Verplank.
In fact, we are left with just four players: Stewart Cink, Robert Allenby, Mike Weir and Justin Leonard. Weir (2003) and Leonard (2005) are two of the four players whose Hope victories helped shape the prevailing criteria.
By the way, Cink and Allenby have a history of playing the Hope - but neither played last year. So the 2007 Hope winner will be either Weir or Leonard.
See how easy that was? Congratulations, Mike or Justin.
So lets go to my picks:
Best Bets:
| Justin Rose | ||||||||||
| 2006 | '05 | '04 | '03 | '02 | '01 | '00 | '99 | '98 | '97 | '96 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T10 | T29 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | T8 |
Full Bob Hope Chrysler Classic record
Coming off a great winter in which he won in Australia and had a great ending to the year. Look for good things from him this week.
| Justin Leonard | ||||||||||
| 2006 | '05 | '04 | '03 | '02 | '01 | '00 | '99 | '98 | '97 | '96 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T35 | Win | T30 | T8 | T6 | T40 | T36 | - | - | - | T61 |
Full Bob Hope Chrysler Classic record
Has had success in this event in the past, last year didn't go very well and we will see if he has worked hard to regain his game.
| Phil Mickelson | ||||||||||
| 2006 | '05 | '04 | '03 | '02 | '01 | '00 | '99 | '98 | '97 | '96 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T5 | T12 | Win | T6 | Win | - | T16 | T2 | - | - | - |
Full Bob Hope Chrysler Classic record
Comes back from a great rest, just wonder how rusty his game will be. Still that hasn't bother him before but the rest and combination of weight loss could prove a problem
Best of the rest:
| John Senden | ||||||||||
| 2006 | '05 | '04 | '03 | '02 | '01 | '00 | '99 | '98 | '97 | '96 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T5 | T6 | T41 | T57 | T13 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Full Bob Hope Chrysler Classic record
Good record at the Hope, has had two respectable starts to begin year.
| Paul Azinger | ||||||||||
| 2006 | '05 | '04 | '03 | '02 | '01 | '00 | '99 | '98 | '97 | '96 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T19 | Cut | T9 | Cut | - | T62 | - | Cut | T24 | - | |
Full Bob Hope Chrysler Classic record
He is the type of guy that could sneak up and win this week, lots of experience, lots of patience and had a good event last week in Hawaii.
| Scott Verplank | ||||||||||
| 2006 | '05 | '04 | '03 | '02 | '01 | '00 | '99 | '98 | '97 | '96 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T2 | T23 | T20 | T12 | T42 | T4 | Cut | T11 | T35 | Cut | - |
Full Bob Hope Chrysler Classic record
Another one of those hot and cold players that could do well this week. Just don't know which Scott Verplank will show up to the desert this week.
| Jerry Kelly | ||||||||||
| 2006 | '05 | '04 | '03 | '02 | '01 | '00 | '99 | '98 | '97 | '96 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T53 | 8 | T30 | T12 | 5 | T26 | T46 | T40 | T35 | T52 | T49 |
Full Bob Hope Chrysler Classic record
I expect a lot from Kelly this year, think that he will return to the winners circle. T13th in Hawaii last week, has had some good Hope's in the past.
| Mike Weir | ||||||||||
| 2006 | '05 | '04 | '03 | '02 | '01 | '00 | '99 | '98 | '97 | '96 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T5 | Cut | T41 | Win | T52 | - | Cut | T32 | - | - | - |
Full Bob Hope Chrysler Classic record
Another of those players looking for a comeback of short, this could be a good week to do it. Benn practicing hard the last couple of weeks, if he could solve his putting problems will be good
Longshot's that could come through:
| Lucas Glover | ||||||||||
| 2006 | '05 | '04 | '03 | '02 | '01 | '00 | '99 | '98 | '97 | '96 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T10 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Full Bob Hope Chrysler Classic record
Look for Lucas to have a breakout year and start it off on the right foot at the Hope this week.
| Anthony Kim | ||||||||||
| 2006 | '05 | '04 | '03 | '02 | '01 | '00 | '99 | '98 | '97 | '96 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | Playing in his first Bob Hope | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Returns to his hometown, played great at Q-school in the desert last month look for him to make a big splash this week.
