OWGR - Week#33

I can't believe I stayed so late to watch a Duffner vs Bradley play-off!!!
But they both played some great golf today and congratulations to Keegan Bradley for
winning in the end his first major so early in his carreer! Both players are rewarded with
top 40 owgr places as a result - Bradley at #29 and Dufner at #38.
Today's 3rd place and the best of the Europeans, A. Hansen,
jumps to #23, while S. Stricker did enough to move him to #3 in the world.
Tiger's poor showing this week means that his slide continues, down to #33 for now...
Anyway, this is how the owgr ranking should look like after week#33:

1 Luke Donald
2 Lee Westwood
3 Steve Stricker
4 Martin Kaymer
5 Rory McIlroy
6 Phil Mickelson
7 Adam Scott
8 Jason Day
9 Dustin Johnson
10 Nick Watney
11 Carl Schwartzel
12 Matt Kuchar
13 Graeme McDowell
14 K.J. Choi
15 Bubba Watson
16 Ian Poulter
17 Paul Casey
18 David Toms
19 Robert Karlsson
20 Kim Kyung-Tae
21 Hunter Mahan
22 Francesco Molinari
23 Anders Hansen
24 Retief Goosen
25 Jim Furyk
26 Martin Laird
27 Rickie Fowler
28 Alvaro Quiros
29 Zach Johnson
29 Keegan Bradley
31 Matteo Manassero
32 Ernie Els
33 Tiger Woods
34 Miguel Jimenez
35 Darren Clarke
36 Justin Rose
37 Gary Woodland
38 Jason Dufner
39 Bo Van Pelt
40 Bill Haas
41 Louis Oosthuizen
42 Y.E. Yang
43 Ryo Ishikawa
44 Tim Clark
45 Ryan Moore
46 Geoff Ogilvy
47 Peter Hanson
48 Edoardo Molinari
49 Sergio Garcia
50 Robert Allenby
---------------------------
51 Brandt Snedeker
52 Ryan Palmer
53 Simon Dyson
54 Aaron Baddeley
55 Webb Simpson
56 Rory Sabbatini
57 Jonathan Byrd
58 Mark Wilson
59 Lucas Glover
60 Ben Crane
61 Fredrik Jacobsen
62 Scot Verplank
63 Yuta Ikeda
64 Ross Fisher
65 Sean O'Hair
66 Anthony Kim
67 Kevin Na
68 Thomas Bjorn
69 Charley Hoffman
70 Jeff Overton
71 Alexander Noren
72 J.B. Holmes
73 Vijay Singh
74 Padraig Harrington
75 Richard Green
76 Nicolas Colsaerts
77 Chris Kirk
78 Stephen Marino
79 Raphael Jacquelin
80 Robert Garrigus
81 Hiroyuki Fujita
82 Brendan Jones
83 Spencer Levin
84 Charles Howell III
85 D.A. Points
86 Camilo Villegas
87 Tetsuji Hiratsuka
88 Stewart Cink
89 Brian Davis
90 Fredrik A. Hed
91 John Senden
92 Angel Cabrera
93 Pablo Larazabal
94 Gregory Bourdy
95 Davis Love III
96 Brendan de Jonge
97 Johan Edfors
98 Thomas Aiken
99 Stephen Gallacher
100 Rickie Barnes
-------------------------------
101 Tommy Gainey
102 Noh Seung-Yul
103 Anders Romero
...

Some big moves, pd, some of them highlighting the huge difference between Anders Hansen's 3rd place and the three T4's. Congestion in the low to mid twenties!
Els starting to plunge now and Eddie Molinari, Allenby, Ogilvy and Clark just about to wave farewell to the top 50.

Yes kwini, a much needed influx of new US blood/names into the top 50 following Bradley and Dufner heroics.

Last night was too late to pay attention to the actual average points numbers, and I've noticed this morning that actually K. Bradley and Z. Johnson have exactly the same no. of points, so in effect they share position #29. The OWGR website is not yet updated, but should double check that with their list later on...

Padraig's slump continues with another 5 places fall this week despite making the cut. Hopefully he'll be able to put a stop to that this week in Greensboro...

Once again the major that people love to be indifferent about produces the most exciting finish of the four this year (granted the Masters was good and would have been extremely exciting had it not been for Charl's perfectly timed birdie spree) ... Absolute heriocs from Bradley after seeming throwing away his chance... I always suspected Dufner may leak a few coming in...

Its a shame Karlsson couldn't hang in there and make the play off...

Shame indeed about Karlsson, don't know when he'll get another chance like that. Sweden will have to wait again to celebrate their first major winner, maybe Noren someday...

Otherwise, here in Ireland the local media are all but claiming the 3rd consecutive major win for Ireland this morning, considering Keegan's strong Irish heritage (sorry kwini, not a lot of talk of him being from Vermont over here... )

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2011/0815/1224302466084.html

Hope to see him at the Irish Open in the near future!

The Irish would claim anyone who had ever had a potato as one of their own. Bradley is about as Irish as tony cascarino

Funnily enough Bradleys middle name is Hansen. So maybe we also had a Scandinavian victory after all?

super_realist wrote:The Irish would claim anyone who had ever had a potato as one of their own. Bradley is about as Irish as tony cascarino

Oh dear... he has a shamrock on his bag, what more do you need...

pedro wrote:Funnily enough Bradleys middle name is Hansen. So maybe we also had a Scandinavian victory after all?

That's true pedro, didn't notice that until you've mentioned it...

I see Westwood has now lost more owgr points this ytd than Woods, wonder how he accumulated them if he wasn't a worthy Number One?

Another lost weekend and Casey and Poulter will start to hit the slippery slope; meanwhile, those ranked about 40th to 60th are very close together; lots of volatility in and out of the Top 50 in store. Strange how some golfers seem to be on that particular bubble month in, month out. Roary, Badds, Palmer, Simpson, even Sergio.

Yes I am afraid, that I did not see any reason at the weekend, why Casey and Poulter, should be in the top 40 come the end of the season.

Was impressed with David Toms, after his bogey, bogey start, seem to knuckle down and get his round back on track.

oldparwin wrote:Yes I am afraid, that I did not see any reason at the weekend, why Casey and Poulter, should be in the top 40 come the end of the season.

Was impressed with David Toms, after his bogey, bogey start, seem to knuckle down and get his round back on track.

If it wasn't for their early season they'd be sliding even more severley than now, cannot see any reason my McDowell would warrant a place top 40 he's been equally as awful.

I'm always impressed with Toms, great swing and tempo, great attitude and as Paul Azinger continually tweets, Toms fires at more flags than any pro he's ever seen....

Toms a great example of how a pro should conduct themselves

Mav,
There's certainly a Major Toms and a very minor Toms.
I've followed him a lot, more by grouping than by choice, and one time in particular he was absolutely miserable on the course. He might very well have been to a funeral seconds before he laced up his spikes but no excuse for behaviour like that.
Love watching his golf but his personality can sometimes make a mess in the bed.

kwinigolfer wrote:Mav,
There's certainly a Major Toms and a very minor Toms.
I've followed him a lot, more by grouping than by choice, and one time in particular he was absolutely miserable on the course. He might very well have been to a funeral seconds before he laced up his spikes but no excuse for behaviour like that.
Love watching his golf but his personality can sometimes make a mess in the bed.

never seen that side of him Kwini so would have to take your word for it, but I guess we can all have bad day's it's just how you portray yourself generally that we hope would shine through.

kwinigolfer wrote:I see Westwood has now lost more owgr points this ytd than Woods, wonder how he accumulated them if he wasn't a worthy Number One?.

It's obviously not the most valuable stat when it comes to current form, but it has it's own merits... Indeed, now Lee is leading the table on owgr points lost in 2011:

1 Lee Westwood
2 Tiger Woods
3 Martin Kaymer
4 Phil Mickelson
5 Rory McIlroy
6 Steve Stricker
7 Jim Furyk
8 Ernie Els
9 Luke Donald
10 Graeme McDowell
11 Ian Poulter
12 Paul Casey
13 Retief Goosen
14 Matt Kuchar
15 Robert Allenby
16 Hunter Mahan
17 Dustin Johnson
18 Padraig Harrington
19 Francesco Molinari
20 Edoardo Molinari
etc.....

Talking about owgr stats, a better (but still not ideal) stat to reflect the very recent form is that of points won over the last 3 months. Here are this week's top 30 in that list:

1 Luke Donald
2 Keegan Bradley
3 Rory McIlroy
4 Steve Stricker
5 Adam Scott
6 Lee Westwood
7 Darren Clarke
8 Jason Day
9 David Toms
10 Dustin Johnson
11 Simon Dyson
12 Fredrik Jacobsen
13 Rickie Fowler
14 Anders Hansen
15 Sergio Garcia
16 Robert Karlsson
17 Matt Kuchar
18 Nick Watney
19 Phil Mickelson
20 Jason Dufner
21 Kim Kyung-Tae
22 Alexander Noren
23 Ian Poulter
24 Bo Van Pelt
25 Ryo Ishikawa
26 Zach Johnson
27 Pablo Larazabal
28 Martin Kaymer
29 Carl Schwartzel
30 Sean O'Hair
...

Kim K-T playing in G'boro this week . . . . . . Not sure why.

kwinigolfer wrote:Kim K-T playing in G'boro this week . . . . . . Not sure why.

I noticed that... but he's played more than decent golf over the last couple of weeks in US, so maybe he's gaining in confidence and wants some more...

I cant remember the last time a player won a major from far behind ( 5 shots or more) on the final day(Harrington's first Open perhaps - 6 behind)
There is a big trend however in recent years on someone from far back making a great run only to mess up the final few holes eg. Karlsson yesterday, Chris Wood(*2 Opens), Mickelson(Open & Masters), Woods (Masters *2). Im sure there are lots more examples from the last 5 or 6 years.....................

I think the course was set up tough, but not with the penal rough you would expect, it was more the length along with the bunkers and water, that made it tough. When you look at the average score per hole, more holes were over par than those under par.

It's a post-major hangover week... Didn't calculate it accurately, but Greensboro looks actually way up from last year in terms of owgr value at 34-36 points, as the Czech Open will be a highly subsidised 24... Perhaps another small hint (following on the recent news about Rory and maybe Lee's PGA Tour intentions) highlighting the fact that the whole theory and expectations of a PGA Tour decline at the expense of the European Tour for some years to come, were probably a bit premature and slightly exagerated...

But having said that, it's good to see the Czech event being still alive and reasonably well after almost 17 years (I think), albeit with a big 12 year break in the middle... I recall in the early-mid 90's when it was held the first time, some people, including myself, were thinking that it may not be too long untill we'll see East European professional golfers apearing in the elite ranks of world golf. Well, there are obviously no signs of that happening yet...

super_realist wrote:The Irish would claim anyone who had ever had a potato as one of their own. Bradley is about as Irish as tony cascarino

Funny I had this same conversation with Jonathan Trott, Kevin Petersen and Eoin Morgan just the other day.. and then along came Matt Stevens and Manu Tuilagi who were looking for Owen Hargreaves - little did they know he was round at Greg Rusedski's house sparring with Lennox Lewis

Bob_the_Job wrote:Funny I had this same conversation with Jonathan Trott, Kevin Petersen and Eoin Morgan just the other day.. and then along came Matt Stevens and Manu Tuilagi who were looking for Owen Hargreaves - little did they know he was round at Greg Rusedski's house sparring with Lennox Lewis

You forgot John Barnes
"He comes from Jamaica, his name is John Bar-nes and when he does his thing the crowd go banan-es"

'morning pd,
They say the Greensboro field is the best they've had for twenty years. Must admit I like these smaller tournaments with great history, this one being Sam Snead's personal annuity for so long. I always like the horses for courses theme, arses for grasses as well and expect the Carolina/South East boys to have a good week, Glover, Sneds etc!

(Hope Bob_the_Job is not starting another Justin Rose feud . . . . .!)

I'm starting nothing - honest! Just highlighting that nationality is a very grey area these days

Top 12 owgr (at least) will remain the same after this week. Tiger will move down to #35, but could go a couple of places lower than that if guys like Duff and Snedd will excel in Greensboro.

Luke has now a comanding enough lead in the owgr rankings and with the majors over and his form not showing any signs of slowing down, it's hard to see him giving away #1 spot until the end of the year. But you never know... in any case, I think it will have to be someone else having a big, sustained charge to take it away from him, rather then him give it away too easily...

PD, I know the calculation methods have changed over the years, but how many players have reached a higher average than Luke has just now. I'd take Vijay at the end of 2004 must have, and of course Tiger, but anyone else?

Whether, majorless or not, this is pretty uncommon run of form from Donald.

ryan, as you've said, calculation methods have changed and in absolute terms you can say that many of the #1's up until Tiger had higher averages, and then Tiger had much higher averages because he's been so dominant. VJ also went as high as over 14 points when he was no.1, but apart from that, obviously you have only Lee and Kaymer left in recent years and they didn't get to the level where Luke is now...

Donald is at 10.28 at the mo

Tiger got up to 29.something and i believe Sir Nick got up near 25.
There are probably a fair few over 10.28 i'd guess

MPB,
As others said, the calculation methods have changed since those days - think in Faldo's time the owgr's were spread over three years, plus other modifications.

Fair enough Kwini, i was just answering in simple terms since Ryan said "I know the calculation methods have changed over the years, but how many players have reached a higher average than Luke "

Not that i know much more about the way these things calculated to answer in anything but simple terms!

Another way (still not perfect) to assert someone's (#1) dominance in a way that can be compared with others from different time periods, is to look at how much they've been ahead percentage wise of the respective #2's in their times. Didn't check all, but here is how the figures look for some of them:

Tiger ahead of Els by ~ 60.7% (2001)
Faldo ahead of Norman by ~ 35.6% (1993)
Norman ahead of Price by ~ 29.3% (1995)
Luke ahead of Lee by ~ 18.4% (as of now)
Lee ahead of Tiger by ~ 17.2% (Jan 2011)
VJ Singh ahead of Tiger by ~ 14.3% (2004)
Kaymer ahead of Lee by ~ 6.1% (2011)
etc...

Pd, if you were my maths teacher at school I'd have paid a hell of a lot more attention. Great stuff!

Lairdy wrote:Pd, if you were my maths teacher at school I'd have paid a hell of a lot more attention. Great stuff!

Cheers, Lairdy. You're getting an A+ for that...

Prince

Thanks for putting the stats up that look at number 1's advantage over number 2.

I was just wondering because although Donald hasn't won the major, I was trying to work how "special" his form has been and how many players have had similiar years.

Actually went over to the OWGR site and noticed they've got a lot more archived weeks than the last time I used it, and for instance Duval and Montgomerie were above 10 at the tail end of 1999 and quite a large number of the top 10 are quite near 10, so was this less strength meaning that the same faces were at the top, therefore scoring more points or a fundamentally uncomparable system.

Also of quite some interest was that I took a month for them to remove Payne Stewart. I did wonder what they were going to do and whether they just let him slowly dwindle down the rankings until he falls off them in late-2001 or whatnot.

ryan - the OWGR system has been a 'work in progress' and a 'learning curve' since it was introduced in mid 80's with a number of significant changes taking place during this period, and with many small changes and improvements taking place virtually every year. The scoring and calculation system in 1999 (which you refered to) was quite different from what it is now, so such cross comparisons between points earned in different time periods are not really very meaningful. The last major changes in the system were introduced in 2001 and in 2007. To put it in simple terms, after each of these major changes, the average number of points that a player would ended up with, have been getting progressively lower. So for example, you cannot compare directly Vijay's maximum of ~14 points that he achieved when he was no. 1 in 2004, with Luke's ~10 points now, it's a bit like apples and oranges...

I haven't looked into how they dealt with Payne's death at the time and I haven't seen anything written in their published rules with regards to such situations. One thing I can say is that when it comes to updating the OWGR website, apart from the regular weekly updates which are made every Monday, they've been quite slow at times (months) in updating other things such as rule changes, etc. in their pages...

From memory, they kept Payne Stewart in the owgr's until the season's Tour schedule was complete and then deleted his name.
Can still remember monitoring the "rogue" aircraft on all the news sites before we ever knew there was a "celebrity" on board, before we ever knew a golfer might be involved. Eerie.
I think guys like Appleby and Baker Finch might have dressed up in Stewart's plus-twos at his funeral . . . . .

Eerie, indeed... I remember quite vividly following the news at the time as well. The way it was reported made it feel doubly eerie, probably because no one could quite understand for a while what was happening with the plane...

Looks like I've sltightly underrated the Greensboro... it will be actually a 38 pointer, which is pretty good. Attention is now diverted to the FedEx points earnings, but a quick look at the owgr shows that Webb will enjoy a nice jump up to as high as #33 with a win! Would come a bit late for him after he just missed Bridgestone, etc. on that score... but still, he'll be happy to see himself passing Tiger on his way if he wins it, and that would push Tiger even further down to 36th-ish...