OWGR - Week#34

Congratulation to the two first time winners, Oliver Fisher and Webb Simpson (Amen)!
Oli Fisher enjoys a significant leap of ~270 places as a result, to ~#236(ish).
Webb Simpson is making now a serious jump into the top50 at #33.
Tiger slump continues, down to #36 this week, while Padraig is down to #75.
Blixt runner up position on Nationwide will lift him upsomewhere
above #385, with Knox climbing to ~#255 or so...

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

pd,
First of all

Second of all, just goes to show the extent to which ties dilute an apparently super finish, the T4's for instance. Horsey hitting the skids I se, Cabrera too. Good to see Tommy Gainey continue to climb and: just a thought about George McNeill: Isn't he just about the most anonymous pro around? Probably reaches the top 120 but who would know?!

Good point about McNeill, kwini, probably ~#122 after that fine effort. I was just about to ask you yesterday at some point, who the heck are McNeill and Summerhays...?

Prince

Just a quick note to say credit to you for producing these rankings with the speed and accuracy you do, I always make the OWGR site my first port of call on a Monday morning, but it invariably isn't updated so I check in here. I notice the search on google also brings up your posts just under the official site, so I would think a lot of non members are seeing it too, which is bringing traffic to the site.

So, thanks, your work is much appreciated.

goldwolf -thank you for your kind words!
I think you're the third person that I hear mntioning about getting to these owgr posts via google search... I'm happy to hear that

Google is strange.
If I google my real name, not that common, it brings up a sex offender in Georgia and a florist in Milton Keynes several times before it ever finds me.
Yet if I search kwinixxxxxx, there's stuff there!
Fact stranger than fiction, obviously!

That's true, kwini, I think most of us get very similar 'surprises' when googling our real names
I guess if you want to look for a purely technical explanation to that, the fact is that when we chose our usernames, we are almost 'forced' into picking names/words that are as unique as possible, therefore when you search for those words, Google is unlikely to find to many other references to it...

kwinigolfer wrote:Google is strange.
If I google my real name, not that common, it brings up a sex offender in Georgia and a florist in Milton Keynes several times before it ever finds me.
Yet if I search kwinixxxxxx, there's stuff there!
Fact stranger than fiction, obviously!

Obviously you are not going to disclose your real name otherwise everyone on here will start googling sex offenders in Georgia

drac knows it, he's probably going through all the cases even as I type!

I know there is a huge amount of debate about the OWGR.. how representative they are if given the #1 and #2 are not major winners.. yawn.. anyway, I have to say that if, I had to pay good money to go see the top 50.. top 25.. or even just the top 10, I'd happily hand over my hard earned dosh.

The fairest system we're likely to get in my opinion, Bob. The more people understand it, for instance with princedrac's help on this site, the more people will realise that, perhaps with one or two commercially-driven inequities, it's as good as we're going to get.

kwinigolfer wrote:The fairest system we're likely to get in my opinion, Bob. The more people understand it, for instance with princedrac's help on this site, the more people will realise that, perhaps with one or two commercially-driven inequities, it's as good as we're going to get.

I agree - the thing that put it in context for me was realising that when Westwood won the Indonesian Masters to go to the top, lots were bemoaning the system because he hadn't won a major. Thing was, he got 20 points for it, whereas a major win gets 100 (from memory).. so in OWGR terms, a major is 5 times more significant than a more "lowly" tournament, which to my mind sounds about right. I think people also fail to realise it's on a rolling couple of years, so it's not a measure of who has had the best career to date. Once you get your head around this, it's a good league table of form and ability.

I have to admit it, the fact that I'm not a big fan of the FedEx cup may also have a dose of sour grapes and jelousy attached to it... And that's not really because of that huge pile of cash they give away, but mainly because in these 5 weeks the PGA tour simply wipes the floor with the ET when it comes to owgr points on offer... Last year for example, over the same 5 weeks, winners in the 4 FedEx cup events earned a total of 264 owgr points compared to only 140 points on offer in 5 events on the ET!
The strong fields announced for the Omega and KLM events on the ET mean that this imbalance may be reduced this year, but only slightly... Luckily ET has some time to recover from that point of view over the following 3 months or so, when there is usually very little golf played on the PGA Tour.

The start is not promising though for the ET - Barclays will be worth almost certainly the same whooping 70 points as last year, but the Jonnie Walker@ Gleneagles will struggle to get more than the minimum of 24 points, compared to 30 points last year...

pd,
I would repeat my note of a few weeks ago that I read an interesting article quoting, among others, Messrs Campbell (Chad), Leonard and Verplank.
They all made the observation that, unless they make hay during the FedEx season they are pretty much shut out of earning owgr points for five months, from Greensboro to the Sony in Hawaii, and that their feeling was more mid-level PGA Tour pros might add some "off season" overseas events should they get the chance. The three mentioned are not noted travellers so it'll be interesting to see if any do "abroad".

Just seen the field for the European Masters next week in Crans-sur-Sierre, great effort by the organisers there! Westwood, Kaymer, McIlroy, Clarke Louis, 2xMolinari, Manassero, Jimenez, Hanson plus Cabrera and Bjorn, Noren, etc.

I take it getting people to Switzerland is easier than other tournies because of tax reasons.

...Or maybe it's because a lot of those rich fellas are keeping their cash in Swiss banks in these troubled times

But you're right Ned, it's a great job by the organisers to get them all to play, although there is obviously a sense of 'nothing else to do' when you look at that list. The prize fund is attractive enough for ET, but nothing special compared to other high profile tournaments...

Otherwise it'll be a rather boring week at the very top of the OWGR table. No one can touch Luke this week at #1. In fact no one can even get close... And only Stricker with a win could replace Lee at #2...
But plenty of changes are possible anywhere else in the top 100, we'll just have to wait and see...

Presumably though the European Masters carries a lot of weight in the race to Dubai?

Not to be sniffed at

Would love it if some of the European Tour members likely to miss out at Plainfield took a flight to Switzerland. Won't happen most likely but there's half a dozen potential casualties who'd grace any field, let alone the Swiss roll.

Crans-Sur-Sierre is one of the most beautiful courses/settings on either tour. Regardless of points it would be one of my priorities.

kwini, that's a good point... It's hard to be surprised anymore about Casey's performances and schedule choices, but would've thought we may see him in Switzerland after his latest disappointment at Greensboro. Even El Pato made the sensible decision...

That may be true SR, it'll be on my priority list as well anytime, but it doesn't seem to work that way for many of these guys. Crans-Sur-Sierre was just as beautiful 1,2,3... years ago and the fields have been weaker than this year...

As I said, there will be 70 owgr points to the Barclays winner (if they complete 54 holes).
For a purist that may look a bit much considering they play only 3 rounds and the course is shortened quite a bit today... But I guess they'll be forgiven as they have to put up with all that hurricane distress.
But it's worth pointing out that there are no less than 96 extra owgr points to the winners of other tournaments played around the world this week (24 for Gleneagles)...

pd,
I'm thinking Dustin would nudge Rory and Martin Kaymer aside with a win? But perhaps not Stricker?? Not quite???

Not a great Poulter fan but lots of credit for his fightback today. And I think we can proclaim Ernie safe!

kwini,

DJ will move to 4th, behing SS and Kuchar to 6th with wins.
I wonder what happened with Adam&Stevie today?

OK... there's a provisional top50 owgr until tomorrow after the Barclays...
DJ at #4, Tiger at #38 (so far)... US players slowly recapturing lost top 10 positions...

1 Luke Donald
2 Lee Westwood
3 Steve Stricker
4 Dustin Johnson
5 Martin Kaymer
6 Rory McIlroy
7 Matt Kuchar
8 Adam Scott
9 Phil Mickelson
10 Jason Day
11 Nick Watney
12 Carl Schwartzel
13 Graeme McDowell
14 K.J. Choi
15 Bubba Watson
16 David Toms
17 Ian Poulter
18 Paul Casey
19 Robert Karlsson
20 Kim Kyung-Tae
21 Hunter Mahan
22 Francesco Molinari
23 Retief Goosen
24 Anders Hansen
25 Jim Furyk
26 Martin Laird
27 Webb Simpson
28 Rickie Fowler
29 Keegan Bradley
30 Matteo Manassero
31 Alvaro Quiros
32 Zach Johnson
33 Ernie Els
34 Justin Rose
35 Darren Clarke
36 Miguel Jimenez
37 Gary Woodland
38 Tiger Woods
39 Brandt Snedeker
40 Y.E. Yang
41 Bo Van Pelt
42 Jason Dufner
43 Bill Haas
44 Sergio Garcia
45 Ryo Ishikawa
46 Ryan Moore
47 Louis Oosthuizen
48 Jonathan Byrd
49 Peter Hanson
50 Tim Clark
...

Sheer weight of numbers propelling Americans upwards (40% of top fifty now) in high earning events at least this week and next, plus the BMW; the Tour Championship not likely to be so rich.
Hopefully Eddie Mol and Simon Dyson will have something to say tomorrow.

One of the sub-plots surrounding the positions 45 thru about 60 in the rankings is the composition of the International Team for Melbourne Presidents Cup duty.
Yang's good finish should confirm his place in Greg Norman's Team and that sews up the top eight positions.
But Ishikawa, Oosthuizen, Baddeley, Sabbatini, Allenby, Ogilvy and Vijay Singh will all now be, as Richie Benaud might say, adjacent. Two of those (right now it would be Ryo and Louis) qualify as of right, presumably two more would be Captain's picks.

With Goosen scuffling along in poor form and fitness and Oosthuizen just not playing (tho he's signed up for Switzerland), this team is looking weak, and one might think Shark would want Badds, Allenby and Ogilvy for local knowledge. May not turn out like that though. Four places for seven guys to duke it out.

Some of the top JP, Korean players would have had that in their mind when they played this week in Japan (in a place called, wait for it... Augusta!). Ishikawa finished strong (T2) so looks like his place is pretty much sealed as he moved tp #43. Norman may also want to consider the winner of this 'Augusta' tourney as a possible pick: Bae Sang-Moon. He's same age as KtK (25) and is another of the 'hot' Koreans coming through the ranks. With this win he's likely to squeeze for the first time into top80 (Gleneagles still to be accounted for).

As for KtK, well, 'Mr. Zero MCs' after his great 3 weeks in US, travelled half-way around the globe and went straight into playing in this tournament in JP and finished T6! I'm telling you, this guy's a golfing machine...

Here's a provisional 40-80 ranks with the Barclays and JP tourneys taken into account:

...
40 Y.E. Yang
41 Bo Van Pelt
42 Jason Dufner
43 Ryo Ishikawa
44 Bill Haas
45 Sergio Garcia
46 Ryan Moore
47 Louis Oosthuizen
48 Jonathan Byrd
49 Peter Hanson
50 Tim Clark
------------------------------------
51 Geoff Ogilvy
52 Edoardo Molinari
53 Vijay Singh
54 Aaron Baddeley
55 Robert Allenby
56 Simon Dyson
57 Rory Sabbatini
58 Ryan Palmer
59 Mark Wilson
60 Fredrik Jacobsen
61 Lucas Glover
62 Charley Hoffman
63 Scot Verplank
64 Yuta Ikeda
65 Ben Crane
66 Thomas Bjorn
67 Sean O'Hair
68 Anthony Kim
69 Richard Green
70 Ross Fisher
71 Padraig Harrington
72 Kevin Na
73 Alexander Noren
74 Jeff Overton
75 Nicolas Colsaerts
76 J.B. Holmes
77 Charles Howell III
78 Camilo Villegas
79 Bae Sang-Moon
80 Chris Kirk
...

Would think Norman would be pleased to have Ryo on his Team, but perhaps no more Asians to be pressured to pick? Can't see why he would want Oosthuizen if he can't be bothered to compete.
Of course, much more of Camilo's behaviour of the past couple of weeks and he'll have to be considered also.

Hi pd,

Excellent again. Don't know how you keep up with the numbers. Mentioned on the Eurocast of the Johnny Walker that Thomas Bjorn will move up to #55 if he wins. Quite an accomplishment for someone approaching the twilight after a few down years. What are his chances of reaching the 'magic 50' ring by year's end?

Cheers, venice.

not sure how they came up with that... unfortunately Bjorn could only move to #59 if he wins this week. As for getting into top 50, I'd be quite confident at this point that he can do it by the end of the year. He's playing in Switzerland next week where he finished runner-up a couple of times (a while ago though). But the fact that you have these rich owgr tourneys in US in the next weeks, means that it will be a bit more difficult than usual for ET players to advance, as many players in front of him could enjoy hefty owgr pickings in the next 3-4 weeks... I think Thomas tends to do quite well also in tournaments in Spain and Portugal, and there will be a few of those coming up in the next couple of months or so...

Thanks. I may have misheard a five for a nine.

Probably not, venice, I think princedrac has the inside track (sorry about that) on the rankings, certainly more so than the TV guys, there or here.