OWGR - Week#37

Congratulations to Simon Dyson for another great win!!!
His superb effort is rewarded with a spectacular rise to #28 in the world, right behind the other recent 'rising star' on the ET, Thomas Bjorn!

Rory did enough in the end to move back to #3 in the world, but Kaymer's rather shocking MC on a course where he won last year, means he drops down to #6.
David Lynn's great runner up position means he is now knocking at the door of the elite #100 (@ 103).
Tiger dropping 'only' two positions this week to #46...

Great win (and a nice pile of cash) for Tommy Fleetwood in Kazahstan and that should get him up just below #210!

This is how OWGR ranking should look like after week#37:

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

And that would be sufficient to qualify Geoff Ogilvy for Greg Norman's Presidents Cup Team, pending next week's results.
Would think, at the very least, there's no chance now for Oosthuizen.

The ET website currently saying ....
With this win, Simon Dyson....
"Moves to just outside the top 30 of the Official World Golf Ranking from 55th"...
Sorry, but I don't think so....

Cheers, kwini. I'll have to check it, but there is a possibility that Louis and Geoff may switch places again next week. Neither is playing as far as I know, but as I've said, will have to check that again...
On form, probably not so much to choose between these two, but I'd probably pick Ogilvy myself (and I'm pretty sure Norman would as well)...

Ogilvy has a home just off the Royal Melbourne course.
Hopefully he'll be teeing it up at the Beemer in Chicago. Would think he'd need a couple of points to keep his nose ahead, but with Veej, Roary, Badds and Allenby all placed to rein in his parade.

You're right kwini, I forgot that he just made it through the next round of FedEx cup. Well, then he'll need to score there a few good points, otherwise it's almost certain he'll drop behind Louis again, not to mention what the other contenders that you've mentioned will do...

An early check of the BMW field in Chicago suggests that it may be worth 'only' 66 points (down from 70 last year). But we'll do a final confirmation of that later in the week...
Tiger gets a reprieve next week, no places dropped due to amortisation, so it'll be left to those just below him if/how much he will slide further down the rankings...

Also as I've mentioned yesterday, King Louis will indeed move back ahead of Ogilvy and actually Geoff will need to finish somewhere in the top 25 at BMW to stay ahead of him and hope for the last automatic place in Greg's President Cup team...

One of the ironies of the FedEx Cup Play-Offs is that the owgr points to be earned will inevitably decline as the Play-Offs reach their climax!

Thanks, pd.

kwinigolfer wrote:One of the ironies of the FedEx Cup Play-Offs is that the owgr points to be earned will inevitably decline as the Play-Offs reach their climax!

Interesting point, kwini.

How much longer before Casey and Poults drop steadily down? Horsey at #98. Has he ever been ranked this high before? Shouldn't Pad be moving up slightly in the near future? Can't believe Keegan Bradley has risen so quickly.

Hi venice,
Thought we'd leave SoCal without a win yesterday . . . .

Casey will start to slide now, Poulter less precipitously, but don't expect Harrington to arrest his fall unless he enjoys a succession of good results - he's losing points faster than anyone around him but am pleased to see he's signed up to play in Austria in ten days. Hope he finds his form.

Horsey was up in the seventies at one time this spring, but lousy results recently.

Yep, saw Padraig is playing in Austria, hope it's the start of a new longer term plan of rebuilding and working together with Pete Cowen. In terms of ranking, his added problem now is that with one or two exceptions, the season of rich owgr point events available to him is all but over. If he goes and wins for example the Austrian Open, it may only lift him up around low 60's, but nothing more spectacular than that... Other than wining, he'll have to finish top 3 in a few events of this caliber to make any significant impression on his rankings...

As kwini suggested, Casey will start droping a bit sooner than Poults, but don't expect any significant slump from them in the next 3-4 weeks (they should only slide to ~#25 in this period). Further than that, it'll obviously depend on their schedule and results... at the moment I'm not sure if either of them will play any significant tournament before the HSBC at the begining of November...(?)

Thanks for the info, pd and kwini. Have been slow to respond in the past 3 weeks due to our offices moving down the street but no available internet service yet at the new place. Thankfully we're still good friends with the folks at the old place and can go online for a few minutes each day when I find the time to take a stroll.

Certainly Padraig has another decade of good golf rummaging in his bones. Imagine if he gets his basic swing down, he'll be back on track. He already knows how to win.

Poor scheduling by The Golf Channel on the west coast reduced my golf viewing time this past weekend. Everything was basically over before the telecasts came on. The tennis made up for it.

kwini,
The Skanks were lucky to take one in Anaheim. Thankfully the Sox are playing even worse.

Luke is untouchable again this week. Lee can only be passed by Stricker with a win at the BMW...

Otherwise, check out who's on the entry list at the Alfred Dunhill Links Champ. in 2 weeks:

Luke Donald
Lee Westwood
Rory McIlroy
M. Kaymer
C. Schwartzel
Ernie Els
D. Clarke
R. Goosen
GMac
Harrington
Immelmann
Oosthuizen
etc...

WOW!!!!!

Impressive, pd. Wouldn't want to wager on that one unless the odds are ridiculous. Don't see Casey's name on the list. Is he retiring?

Hi venice,
Good result from Fenway this afternoon.

Casey may well be in Las Vegas trying to earn the hundreds of thousands of ducats necessary to retain his PGA Tour card. Otherwise it's Q-School for him! But wonder why Poulter wouldn't partake?

Impressive field pd, it would be even impressiver if a leading Aussie or American joined in the fun.

Hang on a minute, I haven't finished yet:

....
Paul Casey
Simon Dyson
T. Bjorn
A. Hansen
P. Hanson
M. Manassero
R. Karlsson
D. Johnson
R. Fisher
A. Quiros
etc...

Wowowow!!!
It's moments like these when you realise again that the ET can put together
a pretty decent bunch these days. Great to see DJ keeping his promise.
Hopefully he'll be still coming even if he wins the 10 million jackpot next week...

Breaking news...

As it stands at this very moment in Chicago...

M. Wilson
J. Byrd
R. Moore
G. Ogilvy
S. Garcia

...are all moving ahead of Tiger Woods in the rankings.

That's: 5 + #46 (current TW position) = 51(TW next week's position??) !!!

Still, loooong way to go till Sunday evening....

BTW, wasn't this week the deadline for the top 50 cut for his Chevron thinggy in December...? Sure he'll send himself an invite in the event of...

I see Ishikawa has been fined for withdrawing from two tournaments at the last minute, the most recent "offence" being committed last week.
Perhaps the w/d's were intended to reduce the risk of bad play affecting his PC qualification?

pd,
I'd think he'd receive an invitation to play, barring any motor accident injuries, wouldn't you?

kwinigolfer wrote:I see Ishikawa has been fined for withdrawing from two tournaments at the last minute, the most recent "offence" being committed last week.
Perhaps the w/d's were intended to reduce the risk of bad play affecting his PC qualification?

Maybe... you could say he could've done with another w/d though, he just missed the cut in this week's tournament in JP...

pd,
Ryo'll be alright now though won't he, barring a miracle which is not currently on the cards?
Shark must be extremely disappointed at Baddeley's audition so far.

Looks safe...ish...
Allenby needs a 3-way tie for 2nd or better
Sabba needs a sollo 3rd or better
to pass him...

Wouldn't be impossible specially for Allenby to get there as he is playing now... but we'll see! Certainly Ryo could have done with some extra points this week...

Allenby seems to have read my last post...

I think Vijay's the only one who doesn't use 606v2; nice eagle for Badds, Roary is getting back into the tournament and King Charl has pulled himself together since I lamented his form.
(Martin Laird shows us how to play a 580 yd par 5 - almost. Just missed a 10ft eagle putt. Good comeback though after his earlier double and rotten start Thursday.)

Norman's President's Cup list after 3 rounds:

1 Jason Day
2 Adam Scott
3 Carl Schwartzel
4 K.J. Choi
5 Kim Kyung-Tae
6 Retief Goosen
7 Ernie Els
8 Y.E. Yang
9 Ryo Ishikawa
10 Geoff Ogilvy
-----------------------------------
11 Louis Oosthuizen
12 Robert Allenby
13 Vijay Singh
14 Aaron Baddeley
15 Rory Sabbatini
...

Allenby probably the only one with a realistic chance to disturb those top 10...
Tiger sitting @ #48 at the moment...

...I mean, after 2 rounds in Chicago and 3 rounds in JP...

pd,
If things were to stay that way, sure he'd pick Allenby and Badds. Complicating things just a touch is the fact that "picks" aren't made until after the Tour Champo, which leaves no chance for anyone other than the FedEx Top 30 to impress next week, so that rules out Oosty and possibly Roary, Allenby and Badds. A chance for Vijay to sink or swim alone!

pd: Nauseatingly enough, my brother has taken six weeks off to camp out (not literally I'm sure) in Auckland for all the Eden Park WC matches. Hope he got soaked in today's excitement!

The 4 top Europeans will be back occupying the first 4 spots in the world on Monday...
Rose could climb up to #17 if he wins, just one place shy of his carreer best...

Sand,
Neither Byrd nor Moore have done anything much good since princedrac wrote that, but it's possible that pd meant Haas and not Moore, Moore already being ahead of Le Tigre. And Haas will need a serious meltdown to avoid leapfrogging Woods, probably just needs to shoot in the seventies..

kwini, Moore was coming down below Tiger this week due to amortisation issues and he needs a minimal amount this week to just pass him again, and he has that at the moment.

Anyway, situation as of this moment is as follows:
Tiger is on the brink, at #50, and his faith really is in Byrd's hands. If Byrd finishes in top 12-13, he can pass Tiger as well. Of course, some of the others can drop down, so it's still volatile. But I don't see anyone else apart from Byrd at the moment being able to pass Tiger this week. So, in realistic terms, Tiger can drop as low as #51...

The other interesting thing is that Ogilvy has just passed Ryo at the moment in the President's Cup list...

... and just to clarify regarding Haas, he is moving ahead of Tiger this week anyway due to amortisation... in other words Haas and Moore are changing places around Tiger this week compared to where they finished last week due to amortisation related changes....

I wondered that about Moore; If Allenby were to finish third, he and Ogilvy could both pass Ryo! Norman certain to select him regardless, got to have a Japanese player. Presidents Cup in Japan has come a long way from the time Jumbo opted not to play.

Agreed, kwini. I think Ishikawa will be in no matter what...
A solo 3rd is not enough for Allenby to pass Ryo, he needs a 3-way tie for 2nd or better...

And actually I was wrong there in relation to Tiger... of course Allenby could also pass him, so TW could end up as low as #52...
A sollo 3rd for Allenby will be enough to pass Tiger, but as I said, not enough to pass Ryo...

I wish Rosey would've added a bit more meat (birdies) on that bone for tomorrow... Anyway, this is how the critical owgr area (for President's Cup, Chevron entry cut, Tiger position, top 50, etc.) looks like before the last round:

...
40 Bo Van Pelt
41 Geoff Ogilvy
42 Miguel Jimenez
43 Jason Dufner
44 Gary Woodland
45 Y.E. Yang
46 Sergio Garcia
47 Ryo Ishikawa
48 Ryan Moore
49 Tiger Woods
50 Jonathan Byrd
-----------------------------------
51 Louis Oosthuizen
52 Peter Hanson
53 Edoardo Molinari
54 Mark Wilson
55 Tim Clark
56 Vijay Singh
57 Aaron Baddeley
58 Robert Allenby
59 Rory Sabbatini
60 Fredrik Jacobsen
61 Ryan Palmer
62 John Senden
...

As I understand it the Chevron has automatic entry for the OWGR top 50?

How many of the world top 50 are actually likely to take up the invite?

I suspect quite a lot won't which presumably means lots of extra invites to those who don't make the grade

Davie,
That's not quite right. The field is limited to 18 golfers, who's "invitation" is subject to a strict protocol established to conform to owgr mandate.
But I believe there are two sponsors invitations, and am not quite sure how the top fifty rule is applied to them. General consensus seems to be that Woods will be in the field, by hook or, of course, by crook.

It is his own event so why would he not be there?

Perhaps the man with the most stupid forename in sport has developed some well overdue humility and is doing the decent thing and remaining absent.

The Chevron entry rules are summarised as follows on their website:

"A field of 18 elite PGA Tour players: the current four major winners, the top 11 available from the Official World Golf Rankings, the defending champion and two special-exemption players compete for a $5 million-prize purse. The winner receives $1.2 million, and the 18th-place finisher received $140,000"

I agree Mac.
But I'd bet TW will just scrape in, perhaps on the number, though it looks as if Mark Wilson has been given a second chance to get in to the top 3 or 4; ridiculous.

s_r: You're clutching at straws - Woods can be accused of a lot of things but humility is certainly not one of them. How else to explain his acceptance of a Couples Pres Cup pick when he didn't even try to qualify via the process?
But I'd give him a free pass in to his own event.

pd,
According to NBC Sports: "the event has two sponsor exemptions to offer to players inside (the) top-50 watermark as of September 19th."
Not sure which version is 100% correct but we know he'll get in somehow even if he has to bribe the owgr people to post next week's rankings a day late.

Kwini, Isn't accepting a place in your own tournament just like buying tickets in your own raffle? Of course he has no humility, I didn't think that was in question.

The man is a Class A clown. I hope for the good of golf and the merciful recent reduction in Woods glory hunters he never returns and his career follows Michael Campbell like trajectory into abject anonymity.
On another note though, I'd like to see Campbell come back sometime.

s_r:
I think he's perfectly entitled to buy tickets to his own raffle, no problem with that.
Except that the PGA Tour (it is still "unofficial") gives it recognition and world ranking points are handed out.
(I have a similar issue with the Nedbank nonsense and the ET Match Play event; all uncompetitive contrivances.)

Not very classy though Kwini to play in your own tournament.
I agree that such tinpot events don't deserve ranking points.

I'm sure Steve Williams would like to play Chevron. Hopefully he'll keep his caddie vest on though... (although I doubt it if he's playing Tiger)

kwini, talking about the US PresCup list. This is how it looks before round 4:

1 Steve Stricker
2 Dustin Johnson
3 Matt Kuchar
4 Phil Mickelson
5 Nick Watney
6 Webb Simpson
7 Bubba Watson
8 David Toms
9 Hunter Mahan
10 Jim Furyk
--------------------------------------
11 Brandt Snedeker
12 Keegan Bradley
13 Zach Johnson
14 Bill Haas
15 Rickie Fowler
....

pd,
I'm not completely sure that's quite right . . . . . . the Points table is based on money, not the owgr. Incredible similarity though.

Of course, forgot that....

Mahan doing his level best to take himself out of the equation; don't think Couples would make him a pick, which he's been at least three times before - becoming a bit of a nearly mahan.

As far as the Chevron is concerned, I agree with people who say it shouldn't get OGWR points. I've no problem with TW "inviting" himself but I didn't realize it was such a small field and with such subjective entry criteria

It will always be a favourite golfing memory of mine though seeing GMac put Tiger to the sword last year though - and I'm not a major Tiger-hater here like some people