OWGR - Week #37

OK, this is a relatively quiet week for he higher end of the rankings, so we may as well update it now...

Congratulations to Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano for his excellent win in Italy!
Small(ish) tournament, relatively easy track, but still great to watch. Gonzo's win comes a bit too late for the Ryder Cup, but he is moving up to a carreer best #37 in the rankings after this. Encouraging performances from Colsaerts, F. Molinari and finally, Kaymer (and by Captain Olly himself) before they get on their flights to Medinah. Go Europe!!!
Very good performance by Garth Mulroy who was unlucky in the end, but a runner up place will not only (more or less) secure his card situation for next year, but will lift him way up to around #165 in the world. Great 3rd place also for Matteo in front of his home crowd, a performance that is moving him back up almost 10 spots to #77.

Congratulations also, for the 3rd time in the last few months, to Hiroyuki Fujita, winner of the Ada Open in Japan, moving him up to #66 and well ahead in the Japanese Order of Merit.

Well done also to Scott Henry from Scotland for securing the most lucrative win on the Challenge Tour, In Kazahstan, after a playoff. He will move somewhere around #360...

There are a few more events to be concluded this week, with two players who can still break into the top 100: Casey Wittenberg who is in contention on the Web.com Tour and Thaworn Wiratchant from Thailand on the Asian Tour (this event will finish tomorrow) so I will make the updates later if necessary. Both of them could break into the top 100 only with wins, with the top 93 being guarranteed to stay as they are now.

The OWGR table after week #37 should look as follows:

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

Great work pd , Doug Ferguson would be mighty impressed!

The rich will get richer next week but when play resumes after the RC, there'll be quite a few golfers anxious to arrest their slide, secure a Masters place.

Quiros of course and Goosen when he's fit again. But David Toms and KJ Choi have started their inexorable slide, and guys like Badds and Freddie Jac, even Martin Laird, will be slipping close to #50 unless they can string some decent results together.

Not looking good for diggers prediction poulter will be outside the top 50 by the year end.

Interesting the Top 10 Europeans in the rankings are 9 automatic choices for the RC and Poulter...............and the next two in the rankings are Kaymer (32) and Petersson ( not eligable for RC)(34).............Colsaerts is at 35..............................

Just goes to show that picking a team for the RC based purely on the OWGR would give you the exact same result this year...............

Furyk would be the only exception to that on the US RC Team . . . . . . Hunter Mahan would be the 12th man.

Interesting second teams:

Pettersson
F'Dez
Lynn
Bjorn
Laird
Jacobson
RCB
Dyson
Donaldson
Hansen
Quiros
Harrington (#57)


Mahan
Watney
Van Pelt
Fowler
Haas
Toms
Garrigus
Piercy
Cauley
Stanley
Na
Wilson (#62)

The 2nd string might be competitive against the top 12 International Players.
1. Scott
2. Oosty
3. Els
4. Schwartzel
5. Day
6. Senden
7. Choi
8. Ogilvy
9. Baddeley
10. SM Bae
11. Chalmers
12. Grace

kwinigolfer wrote:Furyk would be the only exception to that on the US RC Team . . . . . . Hunter Mahan would be the 12th man.

Interesting second teams:

Pettersson
F'Dez
Lynn
Bjorn
Laird
Jacobson
RCB
Dyson
Donaldson
Hansen
Quiros
Harrington (#57)


Mahan
Watney
Van Pelt
Fowler
Haas
Toms
Garrigus
Piercy
Cauley
Stanley
Na
Wilson (#62)

Those teams remind me strangely of RC matchups of the early 2000s. Solidly average European team, no real star quality save a possibly past-it Harrington, but a lot of very consistent players. And a US team with far bigger names fronting it up, down to around Toms/Garrigus, then a rapid fall-off to journeymen quality (remember Wetterich, Henry, Riley etc...).

I see that neither Casey Wittenberg, nor Thaworn Wiratchant have won in the end, so the table remains valid as it is. Winners in those two events were India's Gaganjeet Bhullar and Luke Guthrie, who should be moving somewhere (not far from each other) around #165-170...

Does anyone know what the entry criteria for the BMW Masters in Shanghai are? I have read an article on internet stating "60 players of the OWGR top 100", but that does not tell me whether it will be the top 60 players available or invites or what will happen in case there are not enought top 100 players available (which seems likely) and what the cut off date will be. Anyone?

The very brief description on their website says...

approx. 78 players (60 from the top 100 in the world rankings, four wild cards, 14 players from the Chinese Golf Association) – there is no cut at the BMW Masters

Don't know, but one possibility is that they may go for the top 60 (at what date?) and as some will decline the invite, move lower down the rankings...

Interesting to see that they list previous BMW Asia Open winners as 'past winners' of the event, so don't know if those will get an invitation as well...
We could see Jarmo Sandelin in there again if that will happen...

2008 Darren Clarke
2007 Raphaël Jacquelin
2006 Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño
2005 Ernie Els
2004 Miguel Ángel Jiménez
2002 Padraig Harrington
2001 Jarmo Sandelin

This week's projections:

- Tour Champ @ ~62pts (up from 54 pts last year)
- Panasonic Open @ ~20pts (22 pts last year)

- Rory stays #1.
- Luke can go back to #2 if: 1) he wins and Tiger finishes worse than solo 3rd, or 2) if Luke finishes solo 2nd and Tiger ends up outside the top 20.
- Adam Scott and Dufff are the only ones who could move to #4 if either of them wins. Lee can't reach #3...
- Scott Piercy will move inside the top 50 no matter what...

- Fujita, KT Kim or Marcus Fraser could move inside the top 50 with a win in Japan.