OWGR - Week #1

Happy New Year!

Not sure how happy Hyundai and the ToC organisers are after all this (happy it's all over, for sure), but there's no doubt that Dustin Johnson has enjoyed immensely his stay in Maui! Great start of the new season for him, and a solid move upwards in the rankings, up to #12. Stricker may be thinking of retirement, but no sign of slowing down in his game, moving up to #13. Meanwhile, there's another reason for Poults to feel a bit queasy about his trip to Hawaii: great finish today with three birdies in the last 4 holes, another top 10 finish, yet... he drops 3 places in the rankings, down to #15...

Otherwise, not a lot of other significant movement with just 30 golfers active this week, but in case Scott Jamieson felt slightly annoyed finishing 2012 just outside the top 100, he should be happy now, as he starts 2013 as a top 100 player for the first time in his carreer...

The OWGR table after week #1 should look as follows:

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

How did that happen to poulter?

A bunch of young'ish Americans pushing the Top 10. I wonder when/if we will see Westwood drop out?

McLaren wrote:How did that happen to poulter?

Dustin (1st), Stricker (2nd) and Keegan (4th) passed him.

Keegan (4.997) and Poulter (4.998) were only separated by 0.001 pts, so chances are who ever played better this week, was going to emerge ahead of the other.

Sergio skipped the ToC to play a $10,000 Poker Tournament in the Bahamas. He busted out the first day. That won't do his poker ranking any good.

Boris Becker also played in the Poker Tournament, he made it past Day 1, but I don't have any other info.

Edit Michael Phelps is also playing. And doing very well in Day 1b.

Dear me, tomorrow we're on again...
As Doug F. said last night, Hyundai finished only 29 hours after it started!!
Must be the first time ever when PGAT (or any tour) has two tournaments started/finished inside a single week... (that's assuming Sony won't spill over into next week, of course)

Early count for this week says:

- Sony @ ~38 pts (down from 42 pts last year)
- Volvo Champs @ ~38 pts (up from 32 pts last year)
Peter Hanson has vanished from the Volvo field, but he surfaced in Abu Dhabi instead, where he wasn't figuring a few days ago...

Woods moves back to #2 as we've been saying a while ago.
Oosty could move up to #4 with a top 3 finish in Durban.
DJ, Bradley and Simpson could move as high as #8 with a win...

Does Nine Chins just need to turn up to move to #2?

Surely he needs a place?

"Oosty"? Has he come out of retirement then, pd?

Great to see your thread, pd, the season has now begun!

Worth keeping an eye on the top 64 (cut-off for the WGC Accenture MatchPlay only five weeks away), then the Top 50 for Doral and, soon after, for Augusta.

Almost every player - except #62 Huh - from Toms at #42 to Cauley at #67 and Na at #69 is non-American, then another gap to Stanley Kyle at #76.

Lots to play for on the European Tour then these next few weeks.

Cheers, kwini. I think we may need to keep an eye on the top 65 at least, since the Mechanic will most likely be out. Mind you, it is quite possible that he may slip naturally out of the top 64 in 5 weeks time...

Anybody else who may say pass to the WGC Match Play for whatever reason...?

Phil, almost for sure.

Has Stricker confirmed?

Kwini, Against huge odds, Kris Broberg has a chance to crack the top 64 and play in the match play.

Considering that he was playing w/o any status 6 months and w/o a credible CV, to have a reasonable chance of making the top 64 is remarkable. And only about 16 tournaments on his 2 year resume.

Ned,
MatchPlay is scheduled to be Stricker's next outing, sore left leg permitting, which I'm sure it will!

Good point on Broberg GPB - he's going the opposite direction to compadre Freddie Jac who seems destined to lose his place in the big leagues.

A (maybe) limp Stricker having been out for 6 weeks wouldn't be such a bad opponent for some of he lower ranked players??

Looking at last year, Colsearts was #64 at the time of Matchplay at a 2.188 avg. After Hyundai, #64 was at 2.121

This year #64 is much lower at 1.99.

Doing some basic extrapolation, #64 this year should be about 2.05-207. KJ Choi currently #49 and at 2.23 is probably safe. Anyone #50 and below are vulnerable of falling out top 64 unless they earn some points.

Jimenez is #54 and will be a W/D if he is in the top 64, but I doubt if he stays inside the top 64 in the next 4 weeks. His average will be less than 2.00 when the deadline comes.

Final count confirms the two events are worh 38 pts each to the winners.
King Louis is almost assured of moving to #4 after today's round, but Scott Jamieson could just about sneak into the top 50 if somehow he can prevail. That would be some achievement in such a short space of time...

As it stands now, Shane Lowry would move inside the top 50...