OWGR - Week #20

The first win on one of the main tours is without a doubt a very significant milestone in the carreer of a top pro golfer. But it's probably true to say that a second win is also very significant in that it confirms to a good extent that a player really belongs to that top echelon. So, congratulations to Jason Dufner and Nicolas Colsaerts, who achieved exactly that after winning the HP Byron Nelson and the Volvo Match Play tournaments this week, respectively!
Dufner jumps up to #14 in the world, while Colsaerts becomes now well and truly a top 50 player moving all the way to #32 (both being best carreer positions, of course). Among the other noticeble movers this week, Dickey Pride enjoys a nice jump up of around 160 places, well inside the top 200, Jonas Blixt moves close to #150, while Phil Mickelson climbs back inside top 10 (at #9), knocking Martin Kaymer out of the top 10 in the process. It is rather sad, but not unexpected, to see Kaymer's decline gathering pace these days, but hopefully this little negative 'landmak' will provide the necessary proverbial kick in the back side that will be followed by a few good steps forward in the near future...
Otherwise, Graeme McDowell may feel in a way doubly disappointed this week after geting beat in the Volvo Match Play final and moving up only a couple of spots in the rankings after a runner up finish. But the five places climb by Cabrera Bello would feel pretty sweet, as they secure his qualification for the US Open next month. Talking of which, there would've been a few bottles of good old Rioja consumed in the Mechanic's house tonight as he just about hangs on to the 60th spot... Happy days also for Ryo Ishikawa, Robert Rock, Gonzo, Casey, etc. who are getting their tickets to the US Open, as well as to Kevin Na and Robert Karlsson for qualifying for the Open Championship (no such luck for Ben Crane though at this stage).

Well done also to all the other winners this week:
- Jai Choi from Korea, winner of the Totoumi Hamamatsu Open in Japan, moving up to somewhere around #220
- Nick Flanagan from Oz, winner on the NW tour (after a play-off against his fellow countryman Cameron Percy), which should lift him up ~400 places somewhere around #360
- And talking about second wins... Kim Bi-o from Korea winner for the second week in a row on the Korean/OneAsia tours. Both those tournaments benefited (at least in terms of owgr rating value points) from the participation of KT Kim and KJ Choi, respectively. Bi-o will move up further this week, somewhere just around the #200 spot...

The OWGR table after week #20 should look as follows:

1 Rory McIlroy
2 Luke Donald
3 Lee Westwood
4 Bubba Watson
5 Matt Kuchar
6 Hunter Mahan
7 Tiger Woods
8 Steve Stricker
9 Phil Mickelson
10 Justin Rose
-------------------------
11 Martin Kaymer
12 Webb Simpson
13 Adam Scott
14 Jason Dufner
15 Louis Oosthuizen
16 Charl Schwartzel
17 Jason Day
18 Graeme McDowell
19 Dustin Johnson
20 Rickie Fowler
21 Bill Haas
22 Sergio Garcia
23 Keegan Bradley
24 Peter Hanson
25 Brandt Snedeker
26 Nick Watney
27 Zach Johnson
28 Ian Poulter
29 K.J. Choi
30 Bo Van Pelt
31 Martin Laird
32 Nicolas Colsaerts
33 Francesco Molinari
34 Mark Wilson
35 John Senden
36 David Toms
37 Carl Pettersson
38 Thomas Bjorn
39 Bae Sang-moon
40 Paul Lawrie
41 Jim Furyk
42 Alvaro Quiros
43 Simon Dyson
44 Ernie Els
45 Robert Karlsson
46 Fredrik Jacobson
47 Geoff Ogilvy
48 Aaron Baddeley
49 Anders Hansen
50 Kevin Na
-----------------------
51 Ben Crane
52 Kyle Stanley
53 Jonathan Byrd
54 Paul Casey
55 Gonzalo Fdez-Castano
56 K.T. Kim
57 Rafael Cabrera Bello
58 Robert Rock
59 Ryo Ishikawa
60 Miguel A Jimenez
---------------------------
61 Retief Goosen
62 Matteo Manassero
63 Y.E. Yang
64 Johnson Wagner
65 Branden Grace
66 Greg Chalmers
67 Charles Howell-III
68 Gary Woodland
69 Ryan Moore
70 Darren Clarke
71 Robert Garrigus
72 George Coetzee
73 Ben Curtis
74 D.A. Points
75 Spencer Levin
76 Hiroyuki Fujita
77 Pablo Larrazabal
78 Robert Allenby
79 Toru Taniguchi
80 Michael Hoey
81 Alexander Noren
82 Ryan Palmer
83 Sean O'Hair
84 Vijay Singh
85 Jeff Overton
86 Joost Luiten
87 John Huh
88 Chez Reavie
89 Brian Davis
90 Padraig Harrington
91 Marcus Fraser
92 Richie Ramsay
93 John Rollins
94 Brendan Jones
95 Jaco Van Zyl
96 Stephen Gallacher
97 Rory Sabbatini
98 Michael Thompson
99 Bernd Wiesberger
100 Harrison Frazar
--------------------------
101 George McNeill
102 David Lynn
103 Thomas Aiken
....

Surely that Cocknose Woods must be due to drop out of the top ten soon, or is it just lack of pressure from behind?

So about a third of Darren Clarkes points earned in 2012 now come from the Volvo match play. I hope to hear the cries of unfairness regarding closed shop events but sadly the DC bum lickers on here will probably be satisfied with the situation when he benefits. Imagine if it had been woods who needed the crutch of a limited field event to significantly boost his ranking points………….


Edit

In fact the situation is so much worse than any DC fan my be able to cope with.

Points from “closed shop, just turn up and get some points events” = 13.62

Number of points DC has earned since his open win = 15.18

So 90% of his points come from just turning up, he has not posted a score in any of these events that would make the cut or earn some points in a normal week. In fact he has usually been pretty much last.

The only points he has actually earned have been 1.56 points he got at the Omega European masters.

and to think when kaymer went no. 1 many of us had expectations of a potential throne hogger. hopefully he'll bounce back and quit messing around with the quality swing that got him there. reckon he might put in a few good results in a couple of months time.

mac - dc has already dropped from around 35(?) following his open win. down to 70. personally feel the rankings are reflecting where he should be in terms of exemptions etc, but also dropping him at a good rate appropriate to his lack of achievements following. agree though - shouldn't be handing out pts for 1st round exits.

Events like the Matchplay should maybe be a bit of risk and reward. If you go out early you should lose points, not earn them. Complete joke of an event.

Getting OWGR points for turning up sounds counter-intuitive indeed.

How about taking off owgr points for spitting, swearing, club chucking etc?

i suppose there is an argument that playing a single match isn't really giving you a fair representation of what the rest of the field are doing. for example you could lose but shoot a better score than someone who progresses - so perhaps a cursory element of protectionism isn't such a bad idea.

what's wrong with spitting s_r?

McLaren wrote:So about a third of Darren Clarkes points earned in 2012 now come from the Volvo match play. I hope to hear the cries of unfairness regarding closed shop events but sadly the DC bum lickers on here will probably be satisfied with the situation when he benefits. Imagine if it had been woods who needed the crutch of a limited field event to significantly boost his ranking points………….


Edit

In fact the situation is so much worse than any DC fan my be able to cope with.

Points from “closed shop, just turn up and get some points events” = 13.62

Number of points DC has earned since his open win = 15.18

So 90% of his points come from just turning up, he has not posted a score in any of these events that would make the cut or earn some points in a normal week. In fact he has usually been pretty much last.

The only points he has actually earned have been 1.56 points he got at the Omega European masters.

Mac,
Why are you making this a DC issue, when it is an issue for the main tours or thec OWGR people(does someone know who is in charge of the Rankings)?

You appear to have a personal issue with DC??

"You appear to have a personal issue with DC??"

Not really, I just think if he were any other player he would get a really rough ride about the way he has conducted himself as a major champion. I don’t really care but those that do spout about that sort of thing on here should be willing to criticise the "every man" DC as well.

“Why are you making this a DC issue, when it is an issue for the main tours or thec OWGR people(does someone know who is in charge of the Rankings)?”

Because many people on here have made negative comments about tiger a few others for playing the Chevron and the free points that brings. So why has DC gotten away with this for almost a year now. To only earn 1.56 points in almost 10 months is a joke, and it should not be possible for him to stay in the top 200 or receive any of his exemptions.

He is currently epitomising all that is wrong with golf but gets away with it because he slept around a bit and swilled some Guinness. You could argue the system is nothing to do with him but people on this board find the time to make negative –personal - comments about others who benefit from the systems inequalities.

If he were one of the religious players or Tiger then v2 golf would be ripping into him so hard.

Ban, spitting is for pikey's and ne'er do wells. No need for anyone to spit ever.

Mac, do you really feel your boyfriend Woods is a top ten player? Is he f**k.
The ranking system generally works but has a few anomalies in it which make it look really stupid.

Can't see why DC doesn't deserve all the largesse he can lay his hands on; but as far as limited field freebies the gravy train has pretty much run dry.

Four more years of Major exemptions and that will be it unless he pulls out of his tail-spin pdq.

Mac,

Clarke won the Open Championship, that's worth 100 World Ranking points.....if he didn't play since, he'd still be in the Top 80 or 90 in the World so you will just have to deal with that.

I don't know where you are coming from when you say "the way he has conducted himself as a Major Champion". Can you expand please?? Surley playing lousy golf is a different matter......

There is always plenty of stuff on V2 about the "closed shop/turn up for points" events................it's not an anti-tiger thing, it's anti the system........

The irionic thing really is that DC has played so poorly that he has not benefited from the easy points deriving from events such as the Nedbank........

pd

After flirtations from guys like Noren and Luiten, Oleson and Gonzo, it's interesting that Colsaerts is the young (once upon a time anyway) European to make a breakthrough.

I'm hoping that Rock can emulate Dufner as the latest middle-aged golfer to become an overnight success.

Should be good weather for Wentworth n'est ce pas?

Good timing too, even if we only have a week's worth of summer for the time being...

Will nevertheless turn up at Wentworth prepared for a bit of rain as well as sunshine.

Kwini

“Can't see why DC doesn't deserve all the largesse he can lay his hands on”

Fair enough but if he cannot get himself into a fit state to play to the level required at the very top of world golf could he not decline invitations to WGC’s and the like and let a more deserving player in. It is fair enough to retire but why keep taking places in events you don’t deserve to be ?


John

“I don't know where you are coming from when you say "the way he has conducted himself as a Major Champion". Can you expand please??”

Continuing on from my response to kwini, is it really fair that he gives up to the point where he is playing like someone outside the top 1000 in the world yet continues to deprive players of places in tournaments? Either retire for real or start to play properly. It is an utter disgrace and disrespect to the pro game to win major then just cash in on some free invites. It is not a character trait that appeals to me anyway. He should at least be making an effort to either play in an event on merit or pick up OWGR points on merit.

It could not be more clear, he either stops showing up to events in no condition to compete or quits playing highest level of events.

Mac, shame you didn't have the same derision for sandy lyle etc.

Anyway, how good was Clarkes form prior to the open? He'd won a very small tournament but he wasn't exactly setting the heather on fire. I doubt he was playing much better than he is now.

Mac,
I presume you are totally against the likes of Stadler, Woosnam, Lyle, Mize etc etc turning up to the Masters each year..................

As Kwini said, the WCG's and Nedbank etc will all stop for DC from now on anyway.

I get the impression that you feel DC is overweight?? Not sure but he was just as big when he won the Open and he does work really hard on his game, i think it's just the mental side of the game that's gone from him...........i think fitness was always an issue, that's nothing new

His game over the last 5 years (including 2011) has been 20 bad weeks followed by 1 or 2 good weeks anyway......

Would you be as hard on Michael Campbell ??

John

When I say "fit to play" i mean in terms of a golf game which functions well enough to compete at the highest level, and not his actual physical fitness.

I doubt Mize, lyle, woosnam etc let their games deteriorate so badly in the year after the won a major. It is also not the case that they deprive another player when the tee it up as past champions. In the WGC’s and tour events Clarke has played he has denied another player a chance.

As for Campbell, he tried very hard to be good again but just couldn’t do it.

Why does he not just accept he no longer conducts himself in the way needed to play at the highest level and retire?

ban_bam wrote:and to think when kaymer went no. 1 many of us had expectations of a potential throne hogger. hopefully he'll bounce back and quit messing around with the quality swing that got him there. reckon he might put in a few good results in a couple of months time.

I think this is a point worth re-iterating. There was a lot of stuff written about how great Kaymer was going to be, long-term #1, Luuuke/Westy will drop like a stone (the normal Brit-bashing stuff). I've never seen too much negative stuff written about Kaymer, so can only assume most of us would like to see him get back to his best, but he's been relatively ordinary for a while now. Certainly not where most people would have placed him 18 months ago. Definitely has the all-round game to be the best, but maybe that isn't always enough? Dedication, desire, drive, commitment, etc.

I think this shows the only thing predictable about the great game of golf is its unpredictability. Something that should be borne in mind when over-hyping the likes or Rory and Rickie... No-one knows what paths their careers will take, and for every Rickie there's a Sergio..... And to compare Rory's major record to Tiger's, when he has only won one, and with his overall win ratio, is pretty ridiculous in my opinion.

Any sign of a Carter blog on Dufner being the next big thing in US golf? No? Thought not....

McLaren wrote:
Fair enough but if he cannot get himself into a fit state to play to the level required at the very top of world golf could he not decline invitations to WGC’s and the like and let a more deserving player in. It is fair enough to retire but why keep taking places in events you don’t deserve to be ?

I don't think your argument is very strong mclaren, professional golfers generally are not so considerate about others that they would give up a place in a WGC or other tournament because they have been playing badly for a few months. Even if Darren knows he is finished I can't see a problem with him playing these tournaments, chances are he will find his game again and contend at some stage. Maybe he is working on swing changes, who knows? Personally, as I have said before here I believe Darren is satisfied after his Major win, and as the great TW says, "satisfaction is the enemy of success".

When Justin Rose missed all those cuts were you calling for his retirement?

So mac, how do you propose Clarke gets his competitive form back if he steps aside to let others play. Were you having a go at woods for stinking the place out in 2010 and 2011 and taking someones place who was more worthy

Clarke has been in decline for years. He basically had a couple of good months last year, specifically a couple of very good results. It shoudnt really be any great suprise he has gone back into a slump.

Plenty of players are like that diggers, your own favourite poulter for a start.
Not everyone can play top notch for a whole season, in fact only three or four did in the whole of last year.

Not to the degree that DC did. It was a long famine, then a quick feast and now famine again. As far as I can see he has had a flurry at the end of a very good career. Poultrys form would be far more consistent over the course of the years, I doubt his overall results vary much from year to year to be honest though hopefully this year will see an incresing decline.
If he carrys on his year in the form he has showed so far I still expect him to be outside the top 50 by season end.

Maybe diggers, but he's been in the top 50 for several years so it will take a huge form downturn as he tends to produce enough journeymen form to maintain his position. His form is actually beginning to look a bit stronger for this stage of the season. He's normally pretty poor early on. Not sure if he's playing Wentworth.

Bar the Masters is form is distinctly patchy though a bit better than last year which was generally woeful.

I disagree Diggers, in 10 starts this year he's missed no cuts. Has a 3rd, 7th, 9th, Four top 35 finishes (15th, 25th, 29th and a 33rd) and only 3 around the 40-60th mark.

Granted it's not earth shattering, but pretty consistent stuff for a man who usually misses as many cuts as he makes.

I suppose for someone as rank as him thats OK, in fact I suppose it represents as good form as he has ever shown on the PGA tour which really just shows what a poor career he has had over there.

Agreed, I think he's flogging a dead horse over there. He'd do better in Europe.

I think labelling him "rank" is a bit harsh. Anyone who can maintain top 40 for the best part of a decade is in the very upper echelon of the game, though I do think he'd win more tournaments if he was solely on the EuroTour.

It has been a hectic season and it is often not clear who has been playing the best golf in 2012 so far. So here are the top 30 players ranked by points gained in 2012;

2012 rank	Player	Pts. Gained 2012
1	Rory McIlroy	203.31
2	Bubba Watson	189.23
3	Hunter Mahan	158.66
4	Matt Kuchar	156.38
5	Louis Oosthuizen	149.17
6	Lee Westwood	137.07
7	Justin Rose	133.67
8	Phil Mickelson	129.65
9	Jason Dufner	129.09
10	Rickie Fowler	119.4
11	Luke Donald	118.89
12	Carl Pettersson	116.05
13	Tiger Woods	112.82
14	Peter Hanson	103.22
15	Graeme McDowell	99.23
16	Nicolas Colsaerts	98.65
17	Branden Grace	96.69
18	Bill Haas	96.11
19	Zach Johnson	93.61
20	Johnson Wagner	93.26
21	Brandt Snedeker	90.66
22	Kyle Stanley	90.23
23	Paul Lawrie	89.87
24	Keegan Bradley	87.63
25	Mark Wilson	87.39
26	Ernie Els	83.8
27	Martin Laird	82.94
28	Ben Curtis	81.35
29	Robert Rock	81.15
30	Rafael Cabrera Bello	79.03

I don’t know about anyone else but I did not realise Ernie and Gmac had played that well in 2012?

super_realist wrote:Agreed, I think he's flogging a dead horse over there. He'd do better in Europe.

I think labelling him "rank" is a bit harsh. Anyone who can maintain top 40 for the best part of a decade is in the very upper echelon of the game, though I do think he'd win more tournaments if he was solely on the EuroTour.

It's all about the FED EX....................$$$$

super_realist wrote:Agreed, I think he's flogging a dead horse over there. He'd do better in Europe.

I think labelling him "rank" is a bit harsh. Anyone who can maintain top 40 for the best part of a decade is in the very upper echelon of the game, though I do think he'd win more tournaments if he was solely on the EuroTour.

Would suit his ego, big fish in a small pond.

Cheers kwini.
Very happy for Colsaerts, hopefully he won't slow things down (feeling overly content with himself Kymer-style) and will push himself further, i think he has what it takes to go higher than this...

Not sure yet about Wentworth, but I just hope it's not going to be anything like the weather I had in this holiday...

super_realist wrote:Ban, spitting is for pikey's and ne'er do wells. No need for anyone to spit ever.

tongue and cheek s_r but thanks for the lesson just couldn't resist the chance to use my favourite emoticon oops did it again

McLaren wrote:
....many people on here have made negative comments about tiger a few others for playing the Chevron and the free points that brings. So why has DC gotten away with this for almost a year now.

Because DC appears to be a nice guy.

I think it is remarkable how the OWGR averages are continuing to cluster from the #7 spot to the #16 spot. While there is considerable spread between the #16 spot and #25.

#16 Charl Schwartzel is only ~23.6 OWGR points out of #7 while #25 Brandt Snedeker is ~44.6 points from overtaking #16 Schwartzel.

A solo 3rd place finish in BMW could move Schwartzel up as many as nine 9 places to #7 while a solo 3rd can only #24 Peter Hanson up about 5 spots.

An early count for this week reveals the following:

- BMW PGA @ 64 pts, of course... Would be in reality ~58 pts, below last year's equivalent of 60 pts, so that article that you may have seen on the ET site claiming that "BMW PGA is bigger and better than ever" is to be taken with a pinch of salt, unless they know something we don't... Glad to see Karlsson appearing in the field in the end...
- Colonial @ ~50 pts, up from 46 pts last year (didn't see any WDs yet there)

Projections:
Luke needs a solo 8th or better to move back to no.1 if Rory doesn't score any points. Lee can't get to no. 1 this week...
Other:
Kaymer slips to #12 at least if he doesn't score, while Padraig's little jump up of 5 places after Byron Nelson is short lived and he'll drop back to at least #95 if he doesn't score any points at Wentworth...

I don't think Tiger will win another Major but I'd fancy him to climb back to the top 3 by the end of this year and maybe pick up couple of regular tournies on the way.

Kwini, PD, GPB... and others....

Just want to let you guys know that I've enjoyed my short time on the board. I appreciate the early OWGR discussion we get here and the intelligent and respectful discourse by [nearly] all.

And best of all... (and speaking of [nearly])... as far as I can see there's only ONE blatant "every topic is a reason to bash you know who" participant. That's gotta be a world record low for a golf board. Congrats to the members here (and I suppose the moderators) for that.

OH... and if it'll help me settle in a little better with the rest of ya'll (I'm from Texas remember)... I promise not to like Darren Clarke too much...

robo Feeling's mutual.

All owgr insight thanks to pd!

Cheers robo, kwini

A correction to my earlier projection on Lee's chances (had a small error in his scoring at the Players). Unfortunately he can't get to no. 1 this week. A win would leave him actually less that 1/1000 of a point behind Rory (if Rors doesn't score any points)...

“I don't think Tiger will win another Major but I'd fancy him to climb back to the top 3 by the end of this year”


Maybe Prince or Robo will have a more accurate number but for tiger to get to about 8.2 he will need to accumulate another 130-150 points to get to number 3. Nearer 150 if Lee or another number 3 betters lee’s 8.13.

I reckon he needs to accumulate at least another 200 odd to have a chance at number one. So a major, a WGC and a play off victory could do the trick.

You never know in golf, but looks pretty unlikely for Tiger to do that Mac, even if he would pick up his game soon... 200 pts is underestimated even considering that Rory and Luke's form will suddenly turn average for the rest of the year... But then if any of these two will pick up a win this week at Wentworth, Tiger will suddenly be well over 5 points behind #1...

Prince

I was just assuming he kept a 40 divisor and then 400/40 = 10. Currently good enough for number one. So he needs about 200 + what he will loose over the season.

Very rough calculation indeed and the chances of winning that many big events are slim.

You'd have to think a more realistic aim for Woods this year is to consolidate his position in the top 10, hopefully contending in the remaining majors. I think Westwood will fall away slightly this year personally, though still having some very good weeks, leaving the top two fairly clear.
Though it wouldnt suprise me if one the Yanks carried on and got right up there as well, Id have to say Bubba for me would be the most likely to challenge the top two and I wouldnt have thought that likely last year. But that said, I never really imagined Luke as being a potential world number one player 3 years ago.

I decided to have a browse of some archive rankings and in 2008 after the US open tiger had 861 points and a 21.54 average. Then by the end of 2008 he had 478 points and an 11.9 average, having lost 732 points in 2008. He of course did not play in 2008 after winning the US open with a badly broken leg.

As an aside who was ranked number 2 at year end 2008?

To think that he had about double the points Mcilroy has now and well over double the average is just incredible.

you heard it here first.... padraig is going to win at wenthworth!