Through the era of declaring documents, some of the original manuscripts on which the golf challenges were written have now been lost. As a result, historians are currently pouring over the old databases to see if other results can be recovered. Anyway, the old era was contested by four giants of the golf prediction game: Darren Morgan, Mark Smith, Mike Jones and Steve Drew. From the records that are still available – dating back to 2004, we have the results of twelve competitions:
Year | Competition | Winner | Score | Margin | Steve Drew | Darren Morgan | Mike Jones | Mark Smith |
2004 | TPC | Darren Morgan | -19 | 5 | -12 | -19 | -14 | 27 |
2004 | Masters | Mike Jones | -20 | 27 | 34 | 7 | -20 | 28 |
2004 | US Open | Steve Drew | 9 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 31 | 26 |
2004 | Open | Mike Jones | -18 | 6 | -12 | -3 | -18 | 35 |
2004 | US PGA | Steve Drew | -16 | 4 | -16 | -10 | -12 | 100 |
2005 | TPC | Mike Jones | -11 | 8 | 4 | -3 | -11 | – |
2005 | Masters | Mike Jones | -21 | 16 | 7 | -5 | -21 | -5 |
2005 | US Open | Steve Drew | 20 | 3 | 20 | 23 | 23 | 35 |
2005 | Open | Mark Smith | -8 | 2 | -4 | -6 | -6 | -8 |
2007 | TPC | Mark Smith | -14 | 1 | -10 | -13 | – | -14 |
2007 | US Open | Mark Smith | 31 | 18 | 100 | 49 | – | 31 |
2007 | Open | Steve Drew | -1 | NA | -1 | – | – | 100 |
Over this period, the most successful pundit in terms of ranked position was Mike Jones, followed by Darren and Steve with Sparks at the back. However, in terms of winnings, Mike ended up being £30 up, Steve £10 up, Mark £5 down and Darren £35 down. If we find any more results I will add them to this analysis.
Entries | Average position | Ranked average position | No of entries | No of wins | Entry fees paid | Winnings | Net position |
Steve Drew | 2.5 | 3 | 12 | 4 | 60 | 70 | 10 |
Darren Morgan | 2.1 | 2 | 11 | 1 | 55 | 20 | -35 |
Mike Jones | 1.8 | 1 | 9 | 4 | 45 | 75 | 30 |
Mark Smith | 2.6 | 4 | 11 | 3 | 55 | 50 | -5 |