OWGR - Week #4

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, If a woodchuck could chuck wood...?

Fantastic first ET win for Chris Wood in Qatar, after one of the best finishes we've seen in recent weeks. And a very significant climb up to #60, and looking good for a first trip to the WGC Match Play in a few weeks time. Feels like he's been around for ages, but he's only 25, and hopefully this will be only the begining for him. Superb performances from the two runners up, Garcia and Coetzee, moving up to #14 and #41, respectively. A great result also for Alex Noren, who manages to squeeze inside the top 50 at #49. And a solid performance in the end from Jason Dufner in the desert swing, just enough to lift him back inside the top 10.

Congratulations also to Tiger Woods for his 8th win at Torrey Pines, after dominating that field almost from start to finish. Stumbled a bit at the very end, probably just enough to temper a little bit the euphoria that was reaching the overflow levels the last couple of days. Not going anywhere in the rankings with this, but he manages to cut Rory's lead by more than a point and suddenly brings nearer the prospect of a possible return to #1 in the world. Brandt Snedeker's runner up place moves him up a notch, past Lee Westwood, who needs a fast start next week in Dubai to put a stop to his slide in the rankings. And it's welcome to top 100 for Jimmy Walker, after a nice jump of 26 places up to #90.

Otherwise, the unfortunate Mechanic is droping finally outside the top 64 as we've been expecting... as CHIII manages another little push upwards moving now inside the Match Play cutline at #63.

The OWGR table after week #4 should look as follows:

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

Thanks pd

A week early to rise like a phoenix from any ashes, but late runs saw two Aussies arrest their rankings slide, Badds and Day. About time, for both.

This'll be a big week for reaching the WGC MatchPlay with Dubai and Phoenix. Then Pebble is the final throw of the dice for the Top 64. Some good names will have the week off the way things stand right now. Kevin Na and Aaron Baddeley my two outsiders to play leapfrog!

Could someone confirm that Joost Luiten could reach #64 in the rankings if Dubai stays 36 points and he finishes solo 2nd?

Early count for this week:

Phoenix @ ~52pts (up from 50 last year)
Dubai @ ~36 pts (crashing down from 48 last year)

Snedeker could jump up to #4 with a win.
Westood would only go back to #6 with a win in Dubai.

TMO - Luiten could move as high as #50 with a win in Dubai, but won't get inside the top 64 with anything less than a win...

So what is the Rest of the Story why Dubai is so much lower this year? Rory no longer sponsored by Jumeriah is only part of the reason.

Appearance money becoming dry as dust? I would guess Westy and Sergio are the only players paid to be there.

O'Meara makes his annual appearance, why? I can't imagine why Dubai would keep paying him to travel halfway around the world.

Tournaments built on a foundation of appearance money is a house of cards.

Isn't O'Meara a past (it) champion?

Yes O'Meara won about 10 yrs ago, but what difference does that make. He is well into his 50's, not a draw, and barely competitive on the "See Alice" Circuit.

Traveling to Dubai is an incredibly long trip for him to make with a 85% chance of missing the cut. I guess it is possible that he has business ventures in Dubai that he needs his attention.

As he was part of Team Tiger and always used to travel to Dubai with him on TWA, I imagine he might have received a long-term package deal. Purely speculation though, about one of golf's least likeable players.

Maybe John Daly couldn't make it?

PD, Luiten could gain 24 points in case he finishes solo 2nd, wouldn't that bring him to 64th (or at least very close to 64th) in case the players around position 64 would not be able to score and other players not overtaking him by winning or gaining a lot in the US?

Dubai: 27 top 100 players, but only 7 of them in the top 50. The field is really in need of a couple more star players. Prize fund of 2,5 M US isn't that great, either.

Outside of the majors and a few WGC events the fields of most golf events are pretty thin.

I like watching the 'Desert Swing', its nice to turn the telly on, on a miserable english morning and see the sun and golf courses in lovely condition.

Also I dont mind the fields being 'a bit thin' now and again as you get a chance to see more players, rather than just Tiger or Rory. Who doesnt like watching Matteo Manassero, he could be the best player in the world in a couple of years. Its great to see him growing into the game.

I agree HiGun, tournaments without the bum licking sycophancy that surrounds Nine Chins and McIlroy has long been intolerable. One of the reasons I simply can't watch the PGA as the coverage is so attrocious.

The coverage of The PGA is terrible, no flow due to all the ad-breaks. At least we have the lovely Sarah Stirk to brighten it up for us . The poor yanks must pull there hair out!!

I think the blanket coverage of Tiger last week was almost justified as he tore the field up but not when hes being average and there are players doing better

TMO, Luiten would get 21.6 pts for a solo 2nd which could bring him as high as 67 if other results go his way. What I can't quite get in Luiten's case most of the time is his schedule... very hard sometime to understand/follow his schedule, could be because he tends to go under the radar most of the time and there's not so much info available on him... I remember in the past him missing some events at key moments when would've been beneficial for him to compete and get a result. Do you know more details about him, would be interesting to hear it...?

Is it just me or is Kevin Na ALWAYS involved in the fight to be in the top 64 for the matchplay? Something else to always be sitting around that slot in the rankings every year.

PD, I know that he tends to sometimes miss tournaments as he has a continuing wrist injury (he has had an operation in the past and his injury has not healed perfectly as I understand). That was the reason for him missing last week in Qatar (he had to go see his physician for a check up and tests...).

I do know that he is a young and ambitious player and capable of great results (he has a tournament under his belt and even led the PGA championship last year at -8 after 14 holes). He started competing on the challenge tour in 2007 without a card and managed T10 in his first tournament, ensuring entry in next weeks tournament, finished 3rd, and won the following week. Got another one 3 weeks later in which he managed a 61 (with a shot at a 59) in the final round to win the tournament by 2 strokes and beat the 2nd best round of the day by 5 strokes.

He has signed up with ISM I believe last year or the year before.

As for the calculations: I seemed to think 60% of 36 is 24....

Lairdy, you are absolutely right. He has been around 64th the last 3 years. He is in a spot of bother right now as he needs a bit of a result to qualify (I reckon approximately 20 OWGR points over the following weeks).

So far the Desert Swing has been great. Both Abu Dhabi and Qatar provided good entertainment. And without involving too many big names.

Four more 60's and Mickelson will be nudging the top ten - week 1002 inside the top 50!

Mickelson could move up as high as #9 with a win, but if Sergio wins in Dubai, then he will move to #9 instead. And then Phil could still end up short of the top 10 if at least one other from this bunch - Bubba, Dufner, Bradley - finish strongly to stay ahead of him...

Paddy coud jump as high as #36 with a win and could still scrape inside the top 40 with a runner-up place...

Final count confirmation:

- Phoenix @ 52 pts
- Dubai @ 36 pts

Gallacher would virtually seal a Match Play spot if he goes on to win in Dubai (and do a power of good to my fantasy team). And that would mean almost curtains to Shane Lowry's chances to make it to Tucson...