OWGR - Week #11

There was no South African triple in the end this week, although David Frost may have something to say about that a bit later...

Many congratulations to Kevin Streelman, after a most impressive first PGAT win at Tampa Bay, on a great and really tough course and jumping all the way up to #74 in the world. The only other top100 player from this event that saw a significant move this week was Greg Chalmers, who moves up to #60, other than that, Sergio and Furyk are only moving up one place each, while Tringale's 3rd place should bring him close to the top 100, probably at~#113. A great runner up place for Boooo, which should lift him somewhere around #125 or so... Otherwise, the top 10 remain unchanged while the two Englishmen, Poulter and Westwood exchange places at #11 and #12, respectively...

Congratulations also to Thomas Aiken, winner of the Avantha Masters in India, his second ever win at this level, bringing him back inside the top 100, at #90. Excellent runner up place for the local boy, G. Bhullar, who not only that is climbing back inside the top 100 all the way up to #85, but the €200k earned today, should be just about enough to ensure his card for next season... great work there!

Finally, well done to Prayad Marksaeng of Thailand winner of the Thailand Open and to Jaco Van Zyl of South Africa who won the Telkom PGA, his second significant win on the Sunshine Tour in the last few weeks. Jaco also moves back inside the top 100 as a result of that, at #84, while Marksaeng should climb somewhere inside the top #220...

So, yet another week of more American and South African wins (getting, with respect, a bit sick of them at this stage ). It all means that South Africa has now 10 players inside the top 90 in the world, including 6 inside the top 50 and as I was saying earlier today, it occupies now 9 of the top 25 positions in the Race to Dubai rankings. Would be interesting to see what will be the situation at the end of the season...

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

Cheers pd,
Impressive by those Saffers. What's the secret?
(however I wouldn't mind seeing a big European W soon....)

Thx, pedro. Without trying to diminish their unquestionable talent, the thing that works to their advantage is obviously the calendar and the fact that they host so many (small but many) events in their country. Guys like Fichardt, Van Zyl and to a good extent also Sterne, Coetzee or Grace have climbed on the positions their in at the moment mainly on the foot of significant owgr earnings from home events...

And as if there were not enough of them already, I'll give you another American winner for this week... previously unranked Ted Purdy, just won the first Latinoamerica event of the season, in Mexico. He should move straight around #720 with that...

pd

Still not much movement among the top 28-ish. Hopefully there'll be a little more turbulence with two biggish events this week.

Hadn't noticed the Ted Purdy result - meteoric rise from 90's / early 2000's journeymen to mid 2000 prosperity, a win and some podiums then a disappearing act. There are certainly plenty of exceptions but guys who breakthrough in their thirties often seem to flame out after a few years, as if they over-performed for a year or three then returned to type, being Ted Purdy again. Makes one wonder if Dufner will be one of those.

Two more weeks for Masters qualification (plus the San Antonio winner) - we'll be following guys like CHIII and some others, but not many are as frequently a nearly man as Chuck.

Early count for this week:

- Bay Hill @ ~66 points (up from 56 last year)
- Maybank @ ~30 points (down from 36 last year)

- Tiger has to win to overtake Rory at #1, a solo 2nd will leave him a few hundredths of a point short...
- Sneds & Rose could still reach #3, even if Luke wins in Malaysia
- Phil, Poults and Westy could reach #4 with a win...

princedracula wrote:Early count for this week:

- Bay Hill @ ~66 points (up from 56 last year)
- Maybank @ ~30 points (down from 36 last year)

- Tiger has to win to overtake Rory at #1, a solo 2nd will leave him a few hundredths of a point short...
- Sneds & Rose could still reach #3, even if Luke wins in Malaysia
- Phil, Poults and Westy could reach #4 with a win...

Thanks PD...

Hmmm... 66 for Bay Hill? Highest since a 68 back in 2007. What do you attribute the increase too? I'm kind of getting the feeling a few more pros are going out of their way to play this one out of respect for Arnie... regardless if it really fits their schedule or not. I mean the guy's 80 sumpin now... it's not like he's gonna last forever (but hope he does... :-) But then again it could be just a higher incidence of top rated players being PGAT members this year (all the top-31 OWGR). Also the field is up to 132 from 120... but I doubt that would have influenced the OWGR...

Also good to see Coetzee, Fdez, Molinari and Olesen in the field. Not a lot of people realize it, but OWGR top-50 are automatic invites without need of a sponsor exemption into this field (as they are for other invitationals like the Heritage, Colonial and Memorial... but not the AT&T)

For those who might be interested... the Sponsor exemptions for this week are: Appleby, Chad Campbell, English, Janzen, Kohles, O'Hair, Owen, Pampling, V. Taylor, Verplank, Villegas, Weir, Peter Williamson, Woodland. The 4 exemptions reserved for Web.com - Q-school guys went to Whittenberg, Fisher, Ridings and Gardiner. YEP... that's 18 sponsor exemptions into this field

Also Jeff Klauk was 1st alternate and has gotten in via Kevin Na WD. Speaking of alternates... this week alts. are NOT off the standard priority list... they are ordered from the FedEx points list at the end of the WGC-Cadillac. But the restricted spots to Whittenberg, Fish etc... were awarded straight off the current priority list of guys not already in.

Robert Gamez is in the field as all winners prior to 2000 are still eligible... after 2000 winners get a 5 year exemption into this event.

(and by the way... while I think it's great that some players might go out of their way to play this one for Arnie's sake... I have absolutely ZERO problem with those who don't... specifically Rory who's taken some heat for not playing. If this course, or this event's place on the scheduled doesn't fit a particular players prep or run up to the Masters... I have NO issues with them skipping it.

robo,
Appreciate the info.
What's up with Kevin Na? He'll need to make a medical decision pretty soon if he's injured.

A huge phalanx of guys rated 10-ish to 30-ish in the field boosts the rating presumably.

Very few players speak especially well of Bay Hill . . . . . . so imagine the Arnie sympathy turnout must be significant.

Hope Peter Williamson plays well; not many Ivy League golf pros these days, Bob Heintz an exception I suppose.

Kevin Na... it's still the back issue. I haven't heard anything specific about the injury or anything new about it this week... but it was brought up last week and the comments I heard seemed to indicate whatever it is, its not a real serious deal... he's just going week to week wanting it fully well before he restarts.

And as for the players and their thoughts about Bay Hill... I think the tide has turned on that matter. The condition is fantastic these days, and players seem to like the direction of the continued changes. When Arnie turned Ernie in favor... seems like many more joined in. But let's get real here.. the draw is Arnie, not the course. Bay Hill's certainly not "just another course" by any means, but they play a LOT of great courses out there and if and when Arnie ever leaves us... I wouldn't be surprised to see this one fall off the "must play" list with a lot of players.

As far as Williamson... just you knowing he's Ivy League means you know more about him than I. Bob Heintz on the other hand... one of the more interesting EVEN/ODD players in a long time (On the tour one year.. off the next... then back on, off, off, on, off, on, off, on, off... :-)

Cheers, robo, once again I wouldn't have known of Na's WD from the PGAT site without your info... Keep me posted if you hear of other changes. Still looking like a 'safe' 66 pointer (mid range), so it'll need a big enough fish to WD to make it slide lower...

Here is the evolution chart for the Bay Hill event, had peaks of 72 and 74 points earlier in its life as well as some lows...

Spoiler:

Never heard of Williamson before, but a quick google shows a native of Hanover who stayed home to go to Dartmouth... a long way removed from your standard Deep South, Georgia State young pro. Who knew Dartmouth even had a golf team?

I remember Heintz just missing out at Reno-Tahoe the other year, seemed like a good guy... but fallen off the radar so much since then that I hadn't realised he'd packed it in. Interesting read on him here:
http://www.golfchannel.com/news/john-feinstein/heintz-goes-from-q-school-regular-to-penn-golf-coach/

PD... McGirt (in)/Driscoll (out)

PD... OWGR Scenario if you have time... IF TW wins Bay Hill and Rory wins Houston (at say a 50)... what would be the OWGR going into the Masters?

Robopz:

How did Ryo Ishikawa qualify for Bay Hill?

PD.... no sure if you got it... but Peter Hanson WD... replaced by Stroud.

GPB wrote:Robopz:

How did Ryo Ishikawa qualify for Bay Hill?

As a member of 2011 Presidents Cup team (but must be a PGAT member this year) ALL Ryder Cup players from 2012 (even non-members) were also eligible. Next year... all 2013 PC members will be exempt (even non-members), but only the 2012 Ryder Cup players who are PGAT members will be exempt.

Thanks Robopz:

PD:

Justin overtakes Luke with a Solo 2nd? or will a Two way tie for second be enough?

Well, got this one very wrong regarding Maybank

Home points are from the Asian Tour, of course, which means it's worth much more than I said initially, as I considered the home points coming from the ET... So final count is:

- Bay Hill @ 66 pts
- Maybank @ 38 pts (up from 36 pts last year)

A 3-way tie for 2nd or better would be enough for Justin to overtake Luke, GPB...

What's it all about, Aphi?
Top 100 for him, and Van Zyl looking likely to climb further also.

I think the Thai golfers are getting a just enough reward with three top 100 players, the strength and depth of Thai golf has been and still is very impressive in Asia if you exclude the Koreans and Japanese. Things are changing fast over there, but for now...

Jaco chose not (or wasn't able) to take the high profile road like other compatriots, but this small steps strategy is certainly paying off for him... That could amount to a whooping 52 owgr points in just 5 weeks!

Win for Jaco the Whacko - Sterne T8, Fichardt 30th.