OWGR - Week #6

First topic message reminder :

First of all, congratulations to Rafael Cabrerra-Bello and to Phil Mickelson for their great wins this week in Dubai and at the AT&T ProAm, respectively!

RCB jumps 59 places to a career best #60 and straight into the Match Play field, while Phil moves only 6 places to #11. Gallacher, runner up in Dubai, returns to the top 100 at #97, while Westwood did just enough (or Rory didn’t) to move back ahead of McIlroy at #2 in the world. Tiger, who’s obviously not back yet, stays at #18 and Padraig finally manages a bit of a lift up to #86, after a decent yet still quite frustrating week.

There has been certainly some added excitement in following who’s in and who’s not when it comes to the Match Play field, but to be honest now I’m quite glad it’s over! Well done to all those who made the ‘cut’ in the end and commiserations to those who didn’t make it. Although as we’ve been discussing here for a while, the latter category could be split further into those who didn’t make it but they tried their best (Coetzee, Moore) and those who should’ve put more effort and/or should’ve managed their chances better (and there’s a long list here). And then there’s Ernie Els... Of course, the situation can still change if Casey or indeed someone else decides to withdraw from the Tucson event at the last moment.

Finally, congrats also to Mardan Mamat from Singapore who won the 2nd tournament of the year on the Asian Tour, in the Philippines, and he’ll be rewarded with a nice jump of almost 100 places, somewhere not far from #230.

The OWGR table after week #6 should look like this:

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

Just to give jp something to look forward to, I looked up at Olesen and SHansen's ranking prospects if any of them wins this weekend in India:

- Thorbjorn would move very close to the top 100, probably closer to #110 for the time being
- SHansen would jump approx. 90 places, to somewhere around #175 or so

...and that would be enough to give Alex Miceli a heart attack next Monday! Just kidding again , Alex

GPD,
A 1 year rolling period is surely too short for the Rankings. If that was to move, id be more inclined to see it going toward 3 years that toward 1......although i believe 2 is just about right.

As regards 1st year players, i believe the initial 13 week period where the points are not depreciated are sufficient for an exceptional young talent to make his mark and ala Rory McIlroy did, get into the Top 50 very quickly..........there has to be some apprenticeship surely??

As regards your points on winning majors, all tournaments get depreciated by the same %, i don't see why Majors should be any different...........1.1% of 100 points is still more that 1.1% of 1 point............................

John Cregan,

Thanks for your comments. I do not think there should be de facto apprenticeship program. I think the rankings should reflect the who the best players are now, not who used to be the best players.

and I used Majors as an extreme example, and yes any win after 102 weeks is going to hurt a players average. And FTR, players can avoid the spoilage by having more than the 52 tournament maximum. Most of the majors winner do not tend to play more than 52 weeks.

And Please, no, not a three year system.

How mad will Alex Micelli be if Phil wins on Sunday and doesn't find himself as World No 1??

Wonder if Miceli has a passport . . . . ?

Kwini,

Why aren't some high profile players coming out against the glut of points available at Chevron/Nedbank?

I understand the reasons for them keeping quiet, but surely some are uneasy about it??

JC,
Firstly, no-one ever speaks out against something in Tiger's self-interest!
But perhaps even more important, those players who understand the ranking points probably fancy that sort of Christmas present for themselves.

Els drops to T31... at this level he's playing Rory next week
If he goes worse than T55, he'll get Luke
Higher than the solo 29 level, he'll play Lee, or others below him...

PD,

Where does a Phil win get him to in the Rankings.......top 5 ?

He'll be #5, no matter what... and #1 American, so at least our friend Alex can be happy for something...

why would a high profile world class player speak out against Chevron (and Nedbank) and OWGR recognition?

It helps them remain high profile world class players. it is self-perpetuating, helping the rich stay rich.

I am a big fan of GMac, but his situation two years ago is exhibit A why Chevron should not receive OWGR ranking points.

All other things being equal, the only reason why he qualified for the 2010 Masters and USOpen was because he played the Chevron. (yes he could have gone through sectional qualifying for US open).

Fortunately #51 at the end of 2009 was already qualified (Ryan Moore) so he did not knock someone out of the Masters (but it was possible).

Fortunately, this year, the Chevron and nedbank will be knocked down a level or two by the removal of Home Tour points from the calculation.

Removal of home points, although a step in right direction, is more of a 'cosmetic' adjustment for the media and the punters. At least based on last year situation, it will have virtually no ' impact to the owgr awarded (Netbank impact would've been 0 and just 2 pts less for Chevron).

Aside from other fairer but more complicated ways, I think there is a simpler way to deal with it, allocate to these two in question only the minimum owgr points normally awarded on the respective Tours, i.e.:
- 24 points for Chevron (or whatever it's called now)
- (24+14)/2=19... ok let's say 20 pts for Nedbank

But as we've been saying for a while, these are just dreams anyway...

Since Mickelson is out the MatchPlay Woods is right now the de facto #17 seed.

As such he is bracketed to face Donald in the round of 16 (and Sergio in Round 2)

if one player passes him he will be bracketed to face Rory (likely)
two players it would be Westwood
three players it would be Kaymer. (unless A Scott does something miraculous)

There is a host of players in position to pass Woods tomorrow: Mahan, Rose, Bubba, Haas (and even Bradley).

My guess that no one passes or just one player passes him. I think it is unlikely that two (or more players) pass him.

the network will be salivating about a possible Woods/Donald or Woods/McIlroy matchup on Friday afternoon.

With Els moving lower and lower at Riviera, the 1st round MatchPlay game which is almost certain is Lee vs Colsaerts... That's a tough call...

That's it... Ernie fell to the bottom of the well...

So we have the following matches next week:

Luke vs Els
Rory vs Coetzee
Lee vs Colsaerts

Kaymer vs Chalmers is clinched as well is it not?

Na is going to finish w/ no points. I guess that means he does not pass Manassero.

Yep, pretty much, unless Scott scores a -8 at the last hole !?

Actually no, hang on... DJ is still very much in it and he can catch Kaymer with a win... so we'll have to wait on that one...

Scott has had a nice week for his first outing since December . . . .

OK, DJ can edge of Kaymer with 62 points, but not 60 points?

Not with 60, but it's gonna be 62 for sure...

yes 62 for sure. I got 458 World EVR Pts and 61 HT EVR pts. 519 total.

Is that correct?

Provided he avoids Stanley, I'd think Sergio will have a pretty soft first round next week . . . .

GPB wrote:yes 62 for sure. I got 458 World EVR Pts and 61 HT EVR pts. 519 total.

Is that correct?

Close enough, you're off just a couple of points...

Will he go down any in the rankings if he finishes where he is just now?

Not if Bill Haas stays where he is now.