OWGR - Week #10

What a fantastic win for Justin Rose at Doral, the most important of his carreer so far! As a result he leaps all the way to #7 in the world!! Great performances for Bubba Watson, up to #16 and by Rory McIlroy, who finished 3rd (another top 3!) after playing half of the tournament below (his) par. He already opens a 0.7 pts gap from Luke at #2 and it looks increasingly unlikely now that he will lose the #1 spot anytime soon. An excellent performance also for Charl Schwartzel, which pushes him up to #6, another carreer best. Tiger's sudden and dramatic withdrawal today, means that he gets no points and drops to #18 and now we'll have to wait once again to see what's the true extent and seriousness of his injury and what are going to be the consequences for him for the near future...

Congratulations also to George McNeill who wins the Puerto Rico Open and moves up very close to the top 100. And fair play to Ryo Ishikawa for a great runner up finish, which lifts him back up to #47.

And finally, well done also to the veteran Philip Archer and to young Paul Haley II for their wins in this week's Challenge Tour and Nationwide Tour events, respectively. Archer moves inside the top 300, while Paul Haley moves from literally nowhere (he was not ranked until now!) straight to somewhere around #450 in the world... what an entry!

The OWGR table after week #10 should look like this:

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

I'm often surprised to see that the biggest tournaments typically yield a big owgr jump for the winner, but relatively little movement for those further down the field unless there is a real surprise high placing.

Hanson now the leading Swede, and John Senden second among the Aussies - not sure I'd've picked those two this time last year.

Fine effort for Ishikawa, not often the importance of the last couple of holes of a tournament is shown more starkly than this week in Puerto Rico.

Nice to see GB&I on a two-wins-on-the-trot run; didn't hear that mentioned on NBC TV.

As ususal Timmy looked a bit absent during the prize ceremony. Although Rose was probably not his preferred winner, I'm sure he's a bit more concerned about Tiger.

Ishikawa did what he "should", in order to avoid further questioning about his Masters pick. But I wonder who's next in line for a Masters pick? I wonder when we will see them picking a gay communist muslim gypsy, rather than a commercially interesting hip youngster from a huge golf market?

Kwini, I've been keeping tabs on Hanson for a while and he's steadily establishing himself as a utilitarian and consistent player. You almost expect him to do well at every tournament he enters these days but in true Swedish fashion does it quietly and under the radar, certainly a good each way bet in this years majors.
Delighted to see Woods withdraw with such a pathetic injury.

pedro wrote:Ishikawa did what he "should", in order to avoid further questioning about his Masters pick. But I wonder who's next in line for a Masters pick? I wonder when we will see them picking a gay communist muslim gypsy, rather than a commercially interesting hip youngster from a huge golf market?

The Ishikawa invitation was supposedly about maximising viewer numbers / commercial interest, wasn't it? In which case, surely multiple major winner and big crowd-puller John Daly is in with a shout as next in the queue?!? OK, those chaps in green jackets have to agree first, but I can't imagine what objections they might raise.

[I may be lying through my teeth with one or more statements above.]

Great to see such a strong field this week at the Transitions, deserved justice to one of the best Florida courses on the PGA Tour.

Early count suggests a field strength of around 58 pts (significantly up from 52 last year). In Europe, Open de Andalucia won't make it above 24 pts. This means that Rory's #1 status will come already under some pressure, but Luke could only surpass him with a win at Innisbrook, while a Rose second win in succession will mean that he could move to #4 next week.

Some welcome returns and/or 'doubtfuls' in the Transitions field include: Tim Clark, Lucas Glover and David Toms. I see young Tom Lewis in that field as well.
And hopefully it will be a warm and successful welcome for Mike Weir in the Spanish sunshine this week...

A few McIlroy stats updated as of this week:

- #1 OWGR
- #1 Money List PGA Tour
- #1 FedEx Cup
- #1 Race to Dubai
- #1 Ryder Cup European Points List
- #1 Ryder Cup World Points List

Average score in the last 12 stroke play tournaments: 67.98
Last 13 finishes: 3,3,2,2,1,4,1,11,2,5,2,1,3... I guess it's worth remembering that the 11th place finish was when he had the dengue fever

Very cool seeing Tom Lewis in the Transitions field, Peter Hanson too - as a Special Temporary Member?

Otherwise, the Transitions field looks more like the South African Open, Schwartzel, Sabbatini, Els, Goosen, Clark, Immelman, Oosthuizen - themn there's de Jonge and Justin Rose as well!

Another man coming off the "disabled list" is Scott Verplank.

The strength of this field, and the knowledge that midgetmac and lw1 are not around, makes one wonder if Arnie's Bay Hill event retains the cachet of past years, especially if Woods is unable to play.

Agree about Hanson and I'd like to see him continuing this late progression and making the RC. He's due and he needs a big win soon to lift him to the next level of confidence... not sure if it will be this week though, but who knows?

We've got two confirmed W/Ds so far: CHIII from Transitions and Paul Lawrie from Andalucia... not affecting the earlier points estimates...

Haven't seen any preliminary field for Bay Hill, but my feeling is that it could struggle to match the 58 points from Transitions (and from last year)...

kwini, any idea if Luke or Kaymer will play at Bay Hill next week? I know that GMac will play and then Lairdy, of course, and as you say pretty sure Rory and Lee won't be there. But not sure which other top 50 Euros will play...

pd,
Looks like "No" and "No".

http://www.arnoldpalmerinvitational.com/spectators/players.html

No Casey either, but he "owes one" to Houston.
Very surprised to see no sign of Webb Simpson in these "ten day declarations", he received invites to Bay Hill when most of us didn't know Webb Simpson from Charlotte's Web.
I see the "Chubby" Saffers are missing also, not to mention Darren Clarke who's played well here in the past.
Sergio getting lots of "reps", as Tiger would put it.

Shame Lawrie has w/d'd. He did say he wasnt feeling great at the weekend there and only finished to pick up RC points.

Looking forward to The Transitions. Liked the look of the course last year.

Thanks, kwini. Based on that list they should be happy if it reaches 54. But we shall wait untill the deadline on Friday...

Would any of our knowledgeable experts care to indicate what Wobert Wock (as Elmer Fudd might call him) might need to do this week to qualify for The Masters based on some reasonable assumptions about other movements in that section of the OWGR rankings?

Think he probably did as well as he might have expected in the recent WGCs, but it seems that he still has a little way to go to break into the top 50.

Thanks in advance,

Sky,
No expert here, that is the well-earned preserve of princedrac, but I'd guess he needs a win to be sure of making it. A podium finish both this week and next might also do the trick.
Manassero needs a win plus a second, and even that might not be enough; two wins to be sure, as the rankings in the 50's and 60's are quite stretched.

Sky, kwini is right, RRock needs a win to be sure, to be sure... A solo second would give him only a theoretical chance.

For Matteo a win and a second should do it, a win and a 3rd, again, only a theoretical chance...

Thanks, guys. A bit of a longshot to place any money on him at this stage then (real or fantasy!)...

Take Indian or Chinese citizenship?

Blimey - someone has made the first albatross ace at The Belfry's 10th (I believe Rock is the touring pro there).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/golf/17354334

On related matters, I hope that the next owner (whomever it may be) manages to bring a pro tournament back there...

Skydriver wrote:Blimey - someone has made the first albatross ace at The Belfry's 10th (I believe Rock is the touring pro there).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/golf/17354334

Wow, we're often talking about odds for a hole in one, can't even imagine what the odds would be to have your first hole in one at a par 4...! His name is O'Connor, I wonder, can we claim him...?

Not to pour cold water but Im going to.Quite a different 10th at the Belfry these days the tee is now forward and to the left and the trees on the right have been thinned out considerably.Usual routine for us is to play two balls on that hole.Good news story and well done to the lad.
Rock is attached to the Belfry.I know it gets a bit of stick but still a really good test and the hotels good.When Quinn took over they were a bit ruthless with the staffing,wages etc and I understand staff wise there was a bad atmosphere.Play it if you get the chance

W/d by Immelman, doubt it will affect owgr points available.

kwinigolfer wrote:W/d by Immelman, doubt it will affect owgr points available.

No, it shouldn't...

Just in case Matteo and Padraig go on to win this week's events:

- Padraig could jump as high as #50
- Matteo could move as high as #54

Could be a very successful St Patrick's Day weekend for Irish golfers... not only Paddy, but also with Niall Turner going in to tomorrow's final round on the Asian Tour, 1 shot off the lead and 3 clear of third. Great chance for him to get a first win.

Indeed Ned, I'm keeping a close eye on Niall's endeavour in Cambodia and so far so good, 3 great very consistent rounds... Only on his second year in Asia and he looks to have lerned a lot from his 1st year experiences. But let's wait and see the final round tomorrow...

No changes in the owgr count: 58 and 24 pts. is the final call for the two main events.

Possible moves with wins today:
- Goose as high as #24
- Furyk --- #30
- Bae ---- #21
- Duffff ---- #21
- Jacquelin ----- #79
- Lynn ------ #69

Well, so much for Donald's supposed dip. Great stuff Luke, and as a bonus it knocks that irksome tatty munching oik off the #1 spot.