Bill Cooney of pgatour.com and I created “power rankings” of players prior to the US Open, British Open and PGA Championship. My approach was intended to be simple and just for fun. I weighted play during the season together with recent play (e.g., previous eight tournaments). I didn’t consider how players fared on similar courses, weather forecasts, nor any data more detailed than scores. That said, I expected that the top ten in my rankings would contain the eventual winner about half of the time.

U.S. Open: I had the winner Jordan Spieth ranked 5 before the tournament started. Of course millions of fans had Spieth as the favorite after his Masters triumph. U.S. Open power rankings

British Open: I had the winner Zach Johnson ranked 6 prior to the tournament. British Open power rankings

PGA Championship: I had the winner Jason Day ranked 3 prior to the tournament. PGA Championship power rankings