OWGR - Week #10

After last week's disappointments, fair play to numero uno and numero due for getting things back on track so quickly...

Congratulations to Tiger Woods for a highly impressive win at Doral, probably his best overall performance (and result) since 2009. He is now closing the gap to McIlroy's #1 to just under one point, while at the same time is widening the gap from Luke Donald at #3 to almost 3.4 points! And for the first time since losing the top spot in the world rankings, he will have now a chance to regain the #1 spot if he wins Bay Hill in two weeks time. Great performance and runner up spot for Steve Stricker who returns to the top 10 (at #8) as a result. But it's bye-bye top 10 for the first time since October 2009 for Lee Westwood. Good performances for McDowell and Garcia, moving up to #15 and #17, respectively. Other notable movers this week include Russel Henley and Richard Sterne who both climb back inside the top 50, one after a few weeks, while the other after a few years! And CHIII makes another small step towards the top 50 cutline, jumping up to #56...

Congratulations also to Scott Brown from Augusta, Georgia, winner of the Puerto Rico Open, and jumping up somewhere around #160 as a result. And very well done to Kevin Kisner of USA, winner of the Chile Classic on the Web.com tour, who will move up somewhere around #310.

Finally, congrats to Anirban Lahiri of India, who successfully defended his title at the SAIL Open in New Delhi, on the Asian Tour, and to Danny Chia of Malaysia, winner in his home country of the PGM Masters on the ADTour. They should move up to somewhere around #155 and just inside the top 500, respectively.

And as Vijai's ghost is making another unexpected appearence inside the top 100 this week, sadly it's bye-bye top 100 for Martin Laird. Hopefully we will see him back very soon...

The OWGR table after week #10 should look as follows:

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

Nice write up PD.

I thought the WGC Cadillac was pretty absorbing (although as usual I watched it via Sky+ so I could fast forward through all the guff).

Impressive performance by Woods and indications of a return to form for Garcia, McIlroy, Scott and McDowell - makes for an interesting season. Phil was his usual mercurial self, and I can't help but feel he plays better when he doesn't try so hard.

W/D from Ernie Els this week.

Didn't Tiger have a chance to get the #1 spot last summer at the PGA Championship? He was ~1.1 pts behind Luke.

With Westwood falling out of the top 10, I think that makes Luke with the current highest consecutive weeks at 132 weeks (since Sept 5 2010).

Rory is number 2 at 111 weeks and everyone else at less than a year. Tiger got into the top 10 after the Bay Hill win almost a year ago.

I think we have seen the last of Lee Westwood in the top 10 of the OWGR.

LW, come home to Europe and gain some confidence! Otherwise Im afraid GPB will be right...

Every obit for lw1 so far has been premature; let's hope GPB's is as well.

Lee's par 5 "performance" ranks 146th - until he turns what should be his greatest asset into a big positive, he can't realistically expect to be successful.

Early count for this week:

- TampaBay @ ~52 pts (down from 58 last year)
- Avantha Masters @ ~20 points
- Thailand Open @ ~16 points

King Louis and Scott have a chance to move to #3 with a win at Innisbrook...

kwinigolfer wrote:Every obit for lw1 so far has been premature; let's hope GPB's is as well.

I think that's a little premature too... not a matter of hope... just a matter of practicality. Lee and his family have gone through a big change moving here... and I have to believe that's affected him at least a little bit. And it's not like he's off to a horrible start... not great... but not horrible either. IMO we'll see him settling in a bit from here on out. Don't get me wrong... He's moved off my "probably will win a major" list to my "might still win a major" list... but I still see a lot of quality golf ahead for this guy... certainly enough to get back into the top-10. We'll see.

Good points, robo,
Interesting to watch Lee on "Feherty" last night - I hope he designs himself a schedule that has him playing the courses where he has the best chance of winning, rather than the gallactico circuit that most top Internationals get sucked into.
At his age he needs to learn fast, but to me there are similarities between Lee's game and that of Kenny Perry who played so successfully almost to 50 years old. If Lee can figure out how to attack Tour Par-5's he'll be halfway to a return to the Winners' Enclosure.

princedracula wrote:- TampaBay @ ~52 pts (down from 58 last year)

PD... can't tell ya how much your OWGR efforts are appreciated. I've had a semi-reiliable source on this in the past... but you're ALWAYS there... and you're usually "spot on". :-)

Kind of surprised to see Tampa down this year... but maybe I shouldn't have. That extra event between the WGC's and the Masters probably changes a lot of player schedules as they run up to the Masters. I bet few of the top guys add events... so are now figuring out which 1 or 2 they'll play out of the next 4 instead of the next 3.

My guess... this extra "tweener" event put a little pressure on all three of Tampa, Bay Hill and Houston fields, even though the latter 2 might actually go up on ERV's and winner points when it's all said and done.

It looks like mostly the same top names at Bay Hill as last year... but a lot of those guys higher in the rankings this year (Tiger, Sneds, Rose, Phil... etc).

And of course a 53 point ERV boost from #1 always helps an event like Rory will for Houston. (errr... make that "maybe" 53 ERV's for Rory)

And it certainly looks like the Valero Texas Open field is benefiting from this one time shift before the Masters as well (Kuchar, Poulter, Schwartzel, Furyk & Harrington already among the commitments in what is usually a fairly "nameless" 24 level field)

EDIT: By the way... I assume you have field updated from current online PGAT site... which is correct as of now. Recent additions were Jin Park in for Kevin Na... and 4 rabbits: Tim Petrovic, David Bradshaw, Andy Pope, David Skinns. Tomasulo is still in the field but remains a "game time" decision so keep an eye on him... (not that he'll change anything OWGR wise)

Blimey,
How many Kumars are in Avantha? At least half a dozen by my quick count.

kwinigolfer wrote:
Interesting to watch Lee on "Feherty" last night - I hope he designs himself a schedule that has him playing the courses where he has the best chance of winning, rather than the gallactico circuit that most top Internationals get sucked into.

Good Gawd... let's hope so. That was supposedly one of the TWO main reasons he moved here. And on the other... ISM America division... his future career. He should be in a "perfect place" to build on both now.

kwinigolfer wrote:At his age he needs to learn fast, but to me there are similarities between Lee's game and that of Kenny Perry who played so successfully almost to 50 years old. If Lee can figure out how to attack Tour Par-5's he'll be halfway to a return to the Winners' Enclosure.

Interesting KP comparison.... I hadn't thought of that but I like it. And with his recent understanding of fitness... perhaps a solid run through his 40's might very well be in the offing for the guy. But it's NOT just his par-5 performance... anybody got Dave Stockton or Stricker's number... :-)

kwinigolfer wrote:Blimey,
How many Kumars are in Avantha? At least half a dozen by my quick count.

How many Harolds?

This week's Tampa Bay winner will receive an invite to The Masters, if not already eligible, but very few others in action this week are a threat to make Augusta's field.
Possibilities presumably include, with their current owgr position:

49th: Ogilvy: Made cut in Tampa; a top ten finish would almost secure a place in the field.
59th: Jaidee: Made cut in India
64th: Chris Wood - In contention in Thailand. Perhaps would still need another good finish.
72nd & 73rd: Chalmers & de Jonge: Would think each would need to move from current position inside the cut-line after Tampa's Round 1 to a second-place finish.

Can't see anyone else reaching the Top 50 except via a Tampa win.

robopz wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:Blimey,
How many Kumars are in Avantha? At least half a dozen by my quick count.

How many Harolds?

Not sure if this Euro Centric got the reference, but I did.

And White Castles are a weakness of mine. Good thing there is not one near me.

Final count:

- Tampa @ 52 pts
- Avantha @ 20 pts
- Thailand @ 18 pts (just makes it, on the number)

Means C.Wood could squeeze into top 50 with a win if Ogilvy doesn't get any points, etc,etc...

Coetzee could jump as high as #26 with a win...

Jaco Van Zyl into the Top 100. Pleased to see Dylan Fratelli finding his pro feet also.

Jaco is in fact very close to the top 80, ahead of Aiken. Fritelli getting close to top 500, great result for him today...

Good chance that we'll have 10 saffers inside the top 90 by the end of the day... and 5 inside the top 30 if George does the business! There seems to be no end to this South African uprise...

princedracula wrote:Jaco is in fact very close to the top 80, ahead of Aiken. Fritelli getting close to top 500, great result for him today...

Good chance that we'll have 10 saffers inside the top 90 by the end of the day... and 5 inside the top 30 if George does the business! There seems to be no end to this South African uprise...

I know Womens golf does not get a lot commentary on the board, but it amazes me that with so many South Africans doing well on a world stage in Mens golf, that there no World Class South African Women Players.

It's a good point GPB, you can probably go even further than that when it comes to the social distribution of this great golf talent, but maybe not now...