OWGR - Week #3

First topic message reminder :

Congratulations to Mark Wilson and Branden Grace for their impressive wins this week!
These two together with Johnson Wagner who backed his win from previous week with a runner up place now, achieve carrier best positions this week: Wilson at #40 (#62 at the end of last year), Wagner and his moustache at #68 (was #220 at the end of 2011 and hoping now, no doubt, for a place in the Match Play field) and Grace at #92 (#271 at the end of 2011).

As usual at this time of the year, the South Africans have been taking full advantage of hosting those last few ET/Sunshine events... Aside from Branden Grace, inside the top 10 Charl Schwartzel moves up one place to #8, his pal King Louis continues his impressive climb back on the ranks, now at #23, while the two veterans, Goosen and Els get a much needed boost of owgr points moving up to #45 and #57, respectively.

Otherwise, Tiger stays at #25 before he tees off this week in Abu Dhabi, while Padraig only manages to move up one place to #88.

So, the OWGR table after week #3 should look like this:

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

Not following tennis these days as much as I used to, getting a bit boring for me to see the same faces all the time meeting in semifinals and finals. But looks that the choice of a Federer-Murray final was at least as optimistic as picking Phil (which I did) and Kaymer (which I didn't) for the wins this week...

OK, time for a few more projections based on this 'intermediate' state of affairs...

- Bae could be catapulted as high as 15th in the world with a win at Torrey Pines.
- Matteo could shoot up right back inside the top 30 again
- Olesen could jump straight inside the top 64 and get his ticket to the Match Play
- as for Maybin, apart from 'it would mean the world to him'... it could possibly lift him all the way up into the top 100...

Good chance for guys to reach the top 50 this week with Yang and Clarke going home empty.

Crane and Moore slipping towards missing the MatchPlay.

Kim must be in danger of slipping below the 100 line after another missed cut this week? Not been the same player since his injury, don't think he's in any of the American majors yet.

As it looks now, Tiger actually would have a pretty decent chance to get to #10 with a win. Needs GMac and KJ to finish no better than in a 3-way tie for 2nd and Watney not to win at Farmers (that one looks quite far off now)...

BTW, final count:
Abu Dhabi - 58 pts
Farmers - 48 pts (only just)

If Tiger shows any sort of form at all, he'll be in the top ten pretty soon even if things don't go his way Sunday. (But they probably will.)
Big moves afoot for Stanley if he wins and Robert Rock too, both potentially within knocking distance of the MatchPlay 65.
Very surprised that San Diego's harvest is so high - strength in depth counts for a lot! Perhaps not quite so rich in Phoenix.
Big day Sunday for Ishikawa also.

Attractive field for Dubai, numbers 2, 3, and 4 plus about 7 other top 50 players.
But the South African heavyweights are missing and Couples and O'Meara are the American star power so perhaps more than a hint that Dubai has lost just a touch of its lustre?
Nicholas Thompson seems to have scraped an invite; is he trying the European Tour or is this the Lexi dividend?

C'mon Rocky, a Match Play spot is virtually guarranteed for you if you win. Same prize, although not as 'guarranteed' as for Rock, could be awaiting for Stanley later on (unless he falls 'flat' in the last round )

Provisionally Rock is on #55. In the end a very good result for Rory who will move back to #2 and for GMac who is currently up to #11 (Tiger now at #16).

Again, apart from Rors, all the other are provisional positions before Farmers conclusion...

It is a surprise to see g-mac still so far up the rankings given how often the commentators this week mentioned a relatively poor run of form from him. I guess he has been pretty solid without picking up a win.

PD,

How many more weeks before the cut off for the matchplay??

John C,
Feb 13th, top 65 minus Phil.

Cheers Kwini,
Looks like the bell will save Big Darren then. It will be nice to see him in Matchplay against one of the Worlds Top 10, it might stir some sort of performance out of him...........................

Isn't Casey also out for the matchplay? So it'll be down to 66.

DC should be safe for Accenture JC...
deltoro, there were rumours a few days ago coming from Casey's manager that he should be ok for MatchPlay as well, we shall see...

Knowing how good he seems to be at matchplay, I assumed that Paul Casey was looking to the Accenture as a key part of this season - in terms of both Ryder Cup qualification and PGA Tour status next year.

Sky,
Another incentive would be minimum $35K for getting knocked out in the first round, which is hopefully irrelevant to his exchequer but important as he strives to retrieve his playing card.