OWGR - Week #23

I only have about 15 minutes for this (half time break between Ireland and Croatia and not in the best of moods ), so I'll be very short...

Congrats to Lee Westwood and Dustin Johnson for their wins this week. Lee should be happy with the psychological boost for next week as he gets no real joy otherwise in the rankings despite the win, but DJ is rewarded with a rather unexpected quick return to the top 10. Some may even ask themselves after this, was he really injured ? If he was, this is some recovery...! Obviously, the other big (and lucky) winner this week is Spencer Levin, who manages to book his spot in the US Open next week...

The OWGR table after week #23 should look as follows:

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

Thanks prince, shame about Ireland, but once we beat Italy and Spain everything will be ok!

There were murmurings on a ballwasher thread before that DJ wasn't really injured, I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt however he does seem quite stoner-like in interviews.

Roll on US open!

incontinentia wrote:Thanks prince, shame about Ireland, but once we beat Italy and Spain everything will be ok!

That's the spirit inco! Nothing to do with reality, of course, but hey...
The reality is that there's probably a much bigger chance for Peter Lawrie winning the US Open than for Ireland beating Italy&Spain... At least now we can concentrate more on the golf this week...

Some OWGR projections for this week:

- Rory can move back to #1 only with a win, IF Luke finishes worse than solo 3rd
- Lee can move back to #1 only with a win, IF Luke finishes worse than solo 58th
- Luke needs a solo 3rd or better to stay #1
- Tiger could move to #2 with a win (a solo 2nd could bring him to #3)
- Bubba could move to #3 with win

A few more projections:

- all guys down to current #14 (Webb Simpson) could move as high as #4 with a win (+ Adam Scott who can also get to #4)
- all guys down to current #38 (John Senden) have a chance to squeeze into the top 10 owgr with a win (+ Gonzo as well!)
- the 14-year old Andy Zhang (or any other unranked player that may be out there in this week's field) could go in straight as high as #54 if he wins...!

Prince

I appreciate this must have happened a few weeks back, but there are currently no internationals in the top 10, with the highest placed being charl in 15th. So whats the longest the top 10 has been international free and have there ever been so few in the top 20 for quite some time?

Mac, the top 10 without RoW players is indeed a new thing, but not very new... This particular stretch started since after the 2012 Masters, but it went on also for about 7 months just a year or so ago, between October 2010, when Els dropped out and May 2011 when Schwartzel moved in. I think I mentioned it at the time, in mid October 2010 Els dropped out of the top 10 for the first time after a very long period leaving the top 10 RoW-less. I haven't checked this, but I'm pretty sure this never happened before 2010. Els has spent years inside the top 10 and before him there were always guys like VJ, Price, Norman who have been inside the top 10 OWGR all the way since it was established in 1986...

Some more OWGR projections for those currently in contention to win the US Open:

- mentioned Tiger already in previous posts...
- Furyk, Colsaerts could move as high as #10
- Toms ...#12
- Thompson ... #26
- Peterson ... #49
- McDowell ... #5

Thanks prince, I had a feeling it had been covered just couldn't remember the details.

The US players are coming back very strong in the rankings, and now only have two nationalities in the top 11.

Just to be accurate, there has been another RoW-less top 10 period one year earlier, between mid October 2009 and begining of March 2010. Kind of strange, considering that usually the Nov-Jan period is when many Saffers and Aussies have their extra regional events...

Terrible week for the Asia-based Asians, the Aussies leaving it to Senden and even the young Saffers making way for Ernie and Retief.

Don't think the golf world will keep Schwartzel and Oosthuizen out of the top 15 for long though.