OWGR - Week #48

Glad to see that two of the players I followed for a little while a few months ago at the Irish Open, Gonzo and Otto, went on after that and are having probably the best spells of their carreers so far. There was no real sign of that happening for either of them when I saw them down in Killarney last July, as they both missed the cut there...

Anyway, congratulations to the three winners this week: Greg Chalmers at the Australian PGA, Hennie Otto at the South African Open and Tadahiro Takayama at the Casio World Open in Japan. As a result Chalmers continues his unexpected but impressive climb up the rankings to #63, Otto will be climbing ~100 spots to somwhere around #120s, while Takayama-san should jump up somwhere in the same area as Otto.

Other significant moves this week are from Baddley who gets into a safer position (#44) inside the top 50, Allenby who finally reverses the downward trend with a 12 place jump back into the top 60 and Thomas Aiken who gets back into the top 100. With their runner up places, Wiesberger is consolidating his positin as the best Austrian golfer with a jump somewhere into the 160s, while Marcus Fraser should end up inside the top 140. Finally, Tiger is pushed one spot further down (#52) by Goosen who missed a very good opportunity this week to get back into top 50.

The OWGR table after week #48 should look as follows:

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

There are some golfers this coming week in Hongkers and New Zealand (and elsewhere?, not sure) who will earn owgr points, and a couple of high prize benefits where they will be doled out willy-nilly.
So this week more than ever I hope the top guys, especially in Hong Kong come out on top and their efforts trump the nonsense perpetrated by organizations that are supposed to be about integrity.

Retief Goosen let go a good chance to re-establish his new found form - he said in interviews he has three more tournaments to play in S.Africa before rejoining the E.T. and PGA Tour. Time to buttress his claims for the Masters because if he can't find form in South Africa you could easily feel he'll have a hard road back. Els, Goosen and Singh all with a ton of work to do early next year.

Cheers pd,

Cheers, kwini. An early count for next week reveals the following (give or take):

- HK Open around 38 pts (38 last year)
- Chevron around 44 pts (50)
- Nedbank around 38 pts (34)

Unfortunately, a couple of high profile names have vanished from the HK entry list, including Franny who's been lured to join the 12 Apostles at the Nedbank Supper in Sun City (replacing the injured Bjorn).
Unsurprisingly, Michael Campbell looks to be the most famous name on the NZ Open entry list, so there will be only a minimum number of points on offer to the winner there...

...and forgot to mention the small cousin of Nedbank and Chevron in Japan:
- Golf Nippon Series JT Cup around 20-22 pts (26 last year)

This may be a pretty unlikely scenario, but it is actually a possibility and is just another example that shows the unfair manner in which owgr points are awarded ('willy-nilly' as kwini put it) for silly tournaments like Chevron or Nedbank...

After a rather dubious way of getting his name on the entry list in the first place, Tiger has a nightmare of a week and finishes dead last in a tournament and on a course specially tailored for him. At the same time, after having to travel half way around the world, Alvaro Quiros has a honest and decent run at the HK Open, but finishes just outside the top 18-20.
The result...? Tiger slips back inside the top 50, knocking poor Quiros outside the magic cutline (and all his hopes for major qualifications, etc. will be seriously dashed)... Life's a bitch!

Camilo Villegas languishing down at 82

He's a guy I love to watch play, love his swing and aggressive play on the course, a complete contrast in styles fromthe other 2 guys I like to follow in Luke and Stricker.

Feel as though he's not got it together since his caddy Waldman qualified for the Nationwide tour. Also don't think his early season DQ sat well with him. Shame to see him slide down and now I believe he's switched to a belly putter to hasn't he.

Hopefully 2012 will see a Sergio type comeback for Spidrman and see him return to the winners enclosure and top 20 OGWR

I also like watching Villegas, and itt was interesting to see Manny Villegas, his brother, almost outshining him over the past couple of weeks in Asia...

But talking about Camillo, it's interesting to have a look at these three fellows bunched now, rather ironically, together around the 80th spot:
....
80 Tim Clark
81 Padraig Harrington
82 Camilo Villegas
...

At the begining of the year the owgr for them looked like this:
....
25 Padraig Harrington
26 Tim Clark
37 Camillo Villegas
....

But then that period in January, during or just after the Hawaiian swing, marked the start of a real 'annus horribilis' for these three... Camillo had his infamous DQ at Kapalua and things seem to go downhill from there (although in fairness, he did have a decent run over the FedEx Cup month), Tim damaged his elbow immediately after Hawaii and virtually didn't play at all for the rest of the year, while an excited Padraig was announcing the golfing world that he made about 12 changes to his swing (plus many others) leaving us all rather gobsmacked and waiting anxiously for a miracle to happen ever since...

In numbers, Padraig and Camillo played each around 25-26 events since then, averaging just over 2 owgr points per event (compare that to an average of more than 20 points per event for Luke this year!). While Tim Clark, as I said, played virtually 0 events! Yet, they end up around the same spot at the end of the year... Makes you wonder when you look at all that if it wouldn't have been a better idea for Paddy and Camillo to take the year off and relax...! Well, maybe not, if we notice that both of them still managed to earn over $1million in this period. It's a funny old game...

PD ironically after seeing the rankings I had a look at PGA.com to see Villegas stats and they aren't actually that bad considering finishing inside top 40 on money list with over a million in the bank, hugely helped by his fed ex fun. His other stats a re pretty good to, above tour average on driving accuracy and GIR, same again scranbling and sand saves but his putting below average maybe that's the reason for the switch to the belly and cause of his slide!

Indeed his brother Manny looked very impressive over in asia some low numbers and good ball striking! Any idea where he plys his trade

Maverick wrote:Indeed his brother Manny looked very impressive over in asia some low numbers and good ball striking! Any idea where he plys his trade

Hard to say, saw his name sometimes over the past couple of years on the NGA/Hooters Tour, even won one of these events last year I think... Not sure if went to Q-school for example, maybe Ned or kwini know more...

I've never rated villegas much. Flatters to deceive I think.

Manny Villegas missed out on advancing from "First Stage Qualifying" by one shot.
Brett Waldman has also missed out; not sure if that will attract a reunion with Camilo or not.

A few owgr predictions for this week...

I mentioned Tiger in a rather negative example a few posts above, so here is now some positive news on him: with a win at Chevron he could shoot back up as high as #20!

Luke can't be touched at #1, and no one from #5 down could threaten #2,3,4...

princedracula wrote:A few owgr predictions for this week...

I mentioned Tiger in a rather negative example a few posts above, so here is now some positive news on him: with a win at Chevron he could shoot back up as high as #20!

Luke can't be touched at #1, and no one from #5 down could threaten #2,3,4...

It seems ridiculous that he can get so many points for winning a 12 person field! And on a course custom designed for him, though I guess it would be hard to reflect that in ranking points!

It IS ridiculous, deltoro, no question. Tiger's Chevron has actually a field of 18 (Nedbank has 12), not that it matters anyway, they're both in the same category... pretty much a waste of ranking points.

super_realist
.I've never rated villegas much. Flatters to deceive I think. .

I think thats one of the things I like about him he's a bit of a golfing enigma, you know he has the game to win big and he has done, but he also has the game to fall by the wayside depending on his mood.

In all honesty though theres nothing about his game I don't like, love his swing and way he strikes the ball, and then theres the spiderman reading of the greens.

As for NEdbank and Chevron can't stand either event both just money spinners that imo have no right to OGWR points despite the level of players in them and as for moving upto #20 with a rin as a result, it's a joke that would make Tigers year not seem as bad as the car crash it really has been

I will put my neck on the line now and state that I don't think Tiger will win Chevron

One of the options we've discussed in the past is to have the OWGR's award points on a slippery sliding scale for the top half of the field. Say full points to the winner (if there should be any at all) 40% for 2nd, etc down to 6th at Nedbank, 9th at Chevron, so that the bottom half of the field are not rewarded - penalised really - for not playing well.
At the moment, they're all rewarded whether they play well or poorly.

Davie,
You really feel strongly about this, don't you!?!?

Think that'd be as good a way as any of doing things Kwini if they must award it OGWR points.

I too don't think he will win or am I just hoping he doesn't pretty much the same thing I guess.

pd,
Not sure if you saw that Toms has withdrawn this week - he cites "fatigue" but you can bet it's got more to do with attending a crucial College Football game pitting his beloved LSU against the Uni of Georgia.

kwinigolfer wrote:Davie,
You really feel strongly about this, don't you!?!?

That's perhaps overstating it a bit Kwini - hard to feel "strongly" about such a non-event, but yes, I do believe that far too much is being made of this so-called home advantage that Tiger has at Chevron. His task has got a little easier with a couple of withdrawals but I still see him being beaten come Sunday

If he proves me wrong (especially if he blitzes it) then I'll be quite happy for him - I just think it's too early for him yet

kwini, I saw that, I just can't remember if it was before or after I checked Chevron's rating value. Will check it again a bit later today...

Davie wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:Davie,
You really feel strongly about this, don't you!?!?

That's perhaps overstating it a bit Kwini - hard to feel "strongly" about such a non-event, but yes, I do believe that far too much is being made of this so-called home advantage that Tiger has at Chevron. His task has got a little easier with a couple of withdrawals but I still see him being beaten come Sunday

If he proves me wrong (especially if he blitzes it) then I'll be quite happy for him - I just think it's too early for him yet

I'm hoping for a sniper in the bushes and no "W".

Even if he does win, it's basically the equivalent of a Wednesday sweep down at the club.

pd

Davie,
You may be right, but the small field has to help him.
When he was at his best (and Firestone defies this characterisation, I know!), it always seemed his chances improved exponentially with the number of par-5's on the course.
Not so good at the par 70, 2 x Par-5 layouts, better at the par 71's, mustard on the par 72's with four Par-5's. This is a par 72 with 5 x Par 5's and 5 x Par 3's - what's more, he's only been out of the top two finishers once when he's played. Horses for courses.

kwini, checked again and found the same:

Chevron@44
Nedbank@38

Nedbank is very close to 40, but they're really missing out when it comes to home points, with only one local boy (Schwartzel ) in the field. Quite the opposite is the case for Chevron with so many Americans playing...

Ireland breathing a sigh of relief as Rory finally confirms he'll definitely play in the Irish Open next year! Still no confirmation when/where that will be though...

Cheers pd,
The unacceptable face of capitalism, owgr style.

Good for Rory; can't understand why N.Ireland don't make a push for the IO. Would certainly help secure their stars. If they can't stump up the support for the IO why should the R&A take The Open there, however high quality the courses and hospitality? Rhetorical, I know!

Super

Dont joke about things like that, it could be all to real of someone like that hot dog guy was just a little bit more mental.

Wouldn't bother me Mac. I'd love to see Woods shot with a hot dog.

Princedracula... It is on at the end of June and in Kilarney again, the problem Rory had is there is a tournament on the PGA tour that weekend at Congressional where he won the US open last year, and obviously he would love to go back there again.

I am absolutely delighted Rory is going to play in the Irish open, that event needs him far more than he needs the event. But I do hope he is rewarded by winning his National open this year!

hogie, I'm obviously delighted as well, I believe this step has been critical in securing a title sponsor for the event and hopefully now things will move faster and smoother on that front. I know it's been widely rumored that it will be moved at the end of June and will stay at Killarney for another year, but I haven't seen an official confirmation yet...

kwini, you're right about NI, it's been debated here quite a lot and I think it is well accepted by almost everyone that for NI (Royal Portrush most probably) to get a shot at hosting the Open, it'll have to organise at least an Irish Open first. As far as I can gather, the infrastructure for such an event is the main reason that comes up most of the time when this is debated and I think in that regard some more work may be required in the near future...

How about the Potato Marketing board as a sponsor for the Irish Open?

I was wondering how long it would take SR to come in with one of his hilarious tatty munching comments.

Great news about McIlroy..........hope he plays better next year and all going well i'll be there to see him again.....................

Lee is taking charge at the moment of the Nedbank proceedings and if he wins, Rory can only stay #2 if he wins as well!

Wins would be great for either Quiros or Hanson. If that happens, should lift Quiros somewhere in the 20's and Hanson somewhere in the 30's...

Looks like your nightmare scenario for Quiros is happily relegated to the hypothetical!
How much infrastructure would Portrush need for an Irish Open? They've got to start somewhere, or create their own tournament.

Nothing to do with the owgr, or even golf, but Ian Darke just regaled us with the statistical gem that Kalou has today made his 100th appearance as a sub. Amazing.

McIlroy and Westwood have done their jobs, time for Casey and Laird to step up to the proverbial plate. Here's hoping!

Bad 72nd hole for Popeye Parry today.

Suppose we won't know for sure til Tiger finishes his job today, but how are Quiros and Hanson looking for hanging in the top 50 for another week?

Is the English open still going or have they also run out of spectators and sponsors.
I suggest Ginsters Pasties be approached as the main sponsor.

At the risk of incurring princedrac's contempt, I would say Hanson will be in the top fifty, just, while Quiros will be right on the precipice, maybe #50, maybe #51-ish.
Final positions likely to be dictated by the respective finishes in California of Furyk and Woodland, and whether Ishikawa is in action - not sure about that.

Doon,
Do Ginsters have any pasties left after the bonfire crash outside Taunton?

They have a new roast rabbit and manglewurzle variety.

Again I missed the final stretch from Sun City, but it looks like it was more a case of going through the motions for Lee today... There's actually another golf 'fellow', of a similar generation as Popeye Parry, and who's carrying a similar big lead as Lee had into the final round today. Guess who that is?

Hanson should be ok for top 50 (not by much though) but Quiros won't I'm afraid. And to be fair, in the end it's not just the inequity of these 2-3 exhibition events, but he should blame also himself in part, as he practically threw it all away on the front nine holes today...

Cant believe if Tiger wins tonight he goes 20th in the world. Ok I know hes not got a lot of points in the last few years but its nonsence to jump up 32 places for winning an invitational event on a course he loves. Just think thats BS.

Same with Westwood too, nonsence that Rory had to win today just to keep his 2nd place.

Nonsense, BS and so on, there's no question that many people agree with that when it comes to these events. Question is who can change the minds of the 'politicians' at the top of the game who ultimately dictate these things... Blaming the OWGR system as such is not the solution, the actual owgr system may still have problems, but overall is pretty good as it is. Not sure I understand very well how the whole thing is run, but it's clear that the OWGR is an entity which is practically overseen by the people who run the Tours plus the 4 majors. So, in my view is the 'system' behind the OWGR system, which is the problem. It's complicated...

I know Tiger has had a less that stellar 2 years - but didn't he finish 2nd at the Chevron last year? So he has plenty of points to lose from this week and only a win would help him - or have I misunderstood the way the points system works?

You tell him, pd!

It's not cricket. And it's not tennis either!!

Davie, I think kwini went through that a while ago... In the OWGR there is no correlation between what you did in an event last year and what you are doing in the same event this year...

I wasnt moaning about the OWGR in general, I was moaning about the fact that so many points are given out for a 18 or 12 man event. Just dont agree with it at all.

Even if he gets that putt and the 'w' he won't get to the top 20 as it looked for a while. Casey with that solo 3rd will push him to #21...

So looking forward to hearing from Keizo.....