OWGR - Week #25

They say it's never too late in golf, and here we are, celebrating two 44-year olds as the big winners this week...
 
Congratulations first of all to Ken Duke for a great first ever win at the Travelers. He's been knocking at the doors a couple of times over the past year or so, but I never really took his chances too seriously. Jumps all the way to #70 in the world, no doubt a career best for him. Hard luck for the much younger Chris Stroud, but a nice leap of around 70 places, moving up to #111. And another significant move up in the ranks for 3rd place Graham DeLaet of Canada, now only 4 spots behind Duke at #74, but only a couple of steps forward for the higher ranked Bubba and Webb, moving to 17 and 19, respectively.
 
And congratulations to Ernie Els, after winning the BMW International Open in Germany. He is returning to the winner's circle (for the 66th time in his career!) after almost a year and peaking in form right in time to have a crack at another Open in a few weeks time. With this, Ernie is moving back inside the top 15 in the world, at #14. Talking of peaking in form, that's what appears to be happening with the runner up in Munich as well, Thomas Bjorn (another 40-something). Teaming up once again with Billy Foster seems to have been a great move for both of them, and in just a few weeks he managed not only to stop his rapid decline in the rankings (down into the 90's at some stage), but he has moved steadily back up, reaching #57 this week. Good results for Kaymer, Noren and Wiesberger, with the latter moving finally up into the top 60 (to #58), just a couple of weeks to late though as far as the US Open is concerned... And very well done to the young Frenchman Alexander Levy, who will enjoy a huge leap of over 200 places, as he moves up inside the top 300...
 
And very well done to all the other winners this week:
- first of all the brilliant Brooks Koepka of USA, who captured his 3rd title on the Challenge tour in less than two months and receiving his European Tour card as a result of that. Moves just outside the top 120 in the rankings.
- Satoshi Kodaira of Japan, winner on the Japan Tour and moving up somewhere around #250. No win this time for Matsuyama, but still he finished T7, maintaining his amazing 100% top 10's since he turned professional in April.
- Chesson Hadley of USA, winner on the Web.com Tour in NC, and he will also move somewhere around #250 as a result.
- Pariya Junhasavasdikul of Thailand, winner on the Asian Tour, and he should climb somewhere inside #400...
 
And as we celebrate the return to form of one 42-year old Dane, we have to say bye bye top 100 to another 42-year old Dane, Anders Hansen. I didn't have time yet to check properly how long he stayed in the top 100, but it's been certainly for at least 6 years...
 
The OWGR table after week #25 should look as follows:
 
1 Tiger Woods
2 Rory McIlroy
3 Justin Rose
4 Adam Scott
5 Matt Kuchar
6 Phil Mickelson
7 Luke Donald
8 Brandt Snedeker
9 Graeme McDowell
10 Louis Oosthuizen
--------------------
11 Steve Stricker
12 Lee Westwood
13 Charl Schwartzel
14 Ernie Els
15 Sergio Garcia
16 Keegan Bradley
17 Bubba Watson
18 Jason Day
19 Webb Simpson
20 Ian Poulter
21 Jason Dufner
22 Hunter Mahan
23 Dustin Johnson
24 Peter Hanson
25 Nick Watney
26 Matteo Manassero
27 Bo Van Pelt
28 Jim Furyk
29 Bill Haas
30 Rickie Fowler
31 Zach Johnson
32 Henrik Stenson
33 Branden Grace
34 Martin Kaymer
35 Billy Horschel
36 Thorbjorn Olesen
37 Kevin Streelman
38 Gonzalo Fdez-C.
39 Jamie Donaldson
40 Scott Piercy
41 Nicolas Colsaerts
42 Francesco Molinari
43 Carl Pettersson
44 Robert Garrigus
45 Ryan Moore
46 Paul Lawrie
47 David Lynn
48 Hideki Matsuyama
49 Michael Thompson
50 D.A. Points
----------------
51 Russell Henley
52 Tim Clark
53 Thongchai Jaidee
54 Martin Laird
55 Angel Cabrera
56 Richard Sterne
57 Thomas Bjorn
58 Bernd Wiesberger
59 Boo Weekly
60 Fredrik Jacobson
61 Marcel Siem
62 Alexander Noren
63 George Coetzee
64 Mark Leishman
65 Kyle Stanley
66 John Senden
67 Padraig Harrington
68 Chris Wood
69 Mikko Ilonen
70 Ken Duke
71 Jimmy Walker
72 Charles Howell III
73 Luke Guthrie
74 Graham DeLaet
75 Hiroyuki Fujita
76 Scott Stallings
77 Brendan de Jonge
78 Marcus Fraser
79 Geoff Ogilvy
80 Ryan Palmer
81 Kiradech Aphibarnrat
82 Stephen Gallacher
83 Miguel A. Jimenez
84 Brett Rumford
85 David Lingmerth
86 Bae Sang-Moon
87 Shane Lowry
88 John Huh
89 Harris English
90 Chris Kirk
91 John Merrick
92 Jaco Van Zyl
93 Richie Ramsay
94 Joost Luiten
95 K.J. Choi
96 Scott Jamieson
97 Darren Fichardt
98 Greg Chalmers
99 Kevin Chappell
100 Jonas Blixt
-------------------
101 Charley Hoffman
102 Charlie Beljan
103 Anders Hansen
...

Your efforts are always greater than some of the golfers we follow, pd. If Harrington and Westwood (and Poulter?) don't care, why should we??!!

Zach will surely be in for a bit of a slide as he's not in "Congressional" and probably not playing Greenbrier.

Both Ernie and Ken are 44!  I know who had the harder paper round.

Thanks PD...

As for Anders Hansen...  135 weeks in this most recent stint in the OWGR top-100.  (would have been just over 6 years, 316 weeks, except for 4 weeks outside the top-100 in Sep-Oct 2010). Career wise = 436 weeks top-100 (8.4 years)

Surprising... even without Tiger, and barring a rash of high rated WD's,  the AT&T looks to be just under a 50 level event at 48 (could have been a 52 w/TW, which would have been the highest for this event since it's inaugural year in 2007 at 62).  If this event stays 48... it will mean it's been either the highest or tied for highest OWGR rated event between the Opens since it's inception. Not counting this year... it's been a 62, 48, 50, 48, 44, 48 in it's 6 year history

Can anybody fill me in on Mikko Ilonen?  Just what kind of prospect is he should he start to gain entry into more big events? I have his stats and wiki... just more interested in anyone's "impressions" about him...

Rickie did it! pushed Zach out of the top 30!

Cheers gents.

What's the size of the AT&T field? At the moment they list 132, last year they were ~120... Should we expect to see more coming in or some moving out...?

At the moment, robo's right, looks to be at 48 points.

As for Zach... GPB, hope you're sitting down when you read this...
Projected positions for this week:

29	Zach Johnson
30	Bill Haas
31	Henrik Stenson
32	Rickie Fowler

Sorry...

pd,
The "Invitationals" have larger fields than normal this year to compensate for the loss of tee times given the shorter "regular season". That applied to Bay Hill I think, certainly to Hilton Head and probably Memorial and Colonial. But that's it!

Just Greenbrier, Reno, Glen Abbey, Mississippi (or Muirfield) and Greensboro remain for the likes of Fisher and Karlsson.

princedracula wrote:

As for Zach... GPB, hope you're sitting down when you read this...
Projected positions for this week:

29	Zach Johnson
30	Bill Haas
31	Henrik Stenson
32	Rickie Fowler

Sorry...

DANG IT! Zach gets all the breaks!

GPB (aka GeorgePBurdell) is LEADING the overall PGATour Fantasy League

http://fantasy.pgatour.com/Report/OverallStandings

I know that you Euros are mostly ambivalent about the Presidents Cup, but I take a great interest in the event.

I think a player is going to need 9 million points to make the team on merit which means only 5 players have clinched a spot (TW, BS, MK, PM, and HM). (9 million is what it took two years ago.)

Players in 6-10 spots are experienced players in the RC and or PC and have some work to do to make the team. (Keegan, Strick, Bubba, Webb, DJ)

Stricker probably won't qualify, and I am not entirely sure that he wants to qualify. I think Keegan and Bubba really want to be on the team while Webb and DJ are probably not 100% committed.

That leaves some on the outsider. Some with a lot of experience (Zach and Furyk), minimal experience (Boo, Haas, Fowler, Watney, Dufner) and other with no experience (Horschel, Points, and Streelman).

These guys are going to have to play very well to get to the 9 million point mark as they are at least 2 million away.

Right now, if I were picking, I would be picking Horschel for sure as a Captains pick and of course Haas is going to get a lot of consideration as Daddy Jay is an Assistant Captain.

Please NO FURYK or ZACH, unless they earn it!

GPB wrote:

GPB (aka GeorgePBurdell) is LEADING the overall PGATour Fantasy League

http://fantasy.pgatour.com/Report/OverallStandings

Nice work, GBP! Are they giving away any goodies to the winner?

Isn't that PGAT FL the one that doesn't allow aliens like me from 'other territories' to join in...?

Well done GPB. You should join sportville's major comp next time around and show us who da man! :-)

Thanks for the well wishes.

First place for the entire weeks win a $1000 gift card at the PGA Superstores. The nearest PGATour Superstore is 450 miles away! I don't play golf anymore, so anything I get is going to be gifts or clothing.

First place each week wins a $24 PGATour backpack (woo hoo . . NOT!). I have not been close to that but I have picked 8 winners this year Woods (x2), Kuchar, Horschel, Scott, Rose, Sneds and GMac.

Does not look like they allow any ferrigners in the PGAT game

GPB,
I hope the Burlington Free Press knows about this . . . . great stuff!

Now, one piece of advice for this week: Don't choose Justin Rose who has withdrawn due to mental and physical fatigue.

I hope the BFP does not know about this. I haven't lived in the great state of Vermont in almost 40 yrs so I don't think they care.

Justin was on my short list for this week along with Day, Scott, Mahan, Fowler, Horschel and Hoffman.

I am 'relatively' good shape with my picks (you can only pick a player 10 times) compared with other players that are close to me in the standings.

I have three players on what I call the critical list (4 or less picks left) Kuchar with 4 and PMick with 3.

and I have 7 players on the 'caution' list with 5 or 6 picks left. (Woods, Scott, Mahan, Walker, Sneds, Charl, and Rory). Every other player has at least 7 picks left including Rose.

My strategy through the early part of the season was to pick three "chalk" picks and one lesser ranked player. That is why I have picked Jimmy Walker 4 times already this season. Making the cut every week doesn't hurt either.

I am going to try to make sure I have al least three picks left for each player going into the playoffs. The guy that had been leading going into last week has used Tiger at every opportunity and he has only three Tiger picks left. And assuming he is not hurt seriously, Tiger has 7 tournaments left. OC, Bridgestone, PGA, and 4 playoff events.

And believe it or not, I have been paying closer attention to the Sagarin Rankings more than the OWGR rankings when choosing my team.

Thanks for your insight GPB. Jason Day only does well in majors? Mahan will be a good shot - unless he's burned out.

Early count:

- ATandT @ ~46pts (Rose effect, down from #48p last year)
- IrishOpen @ 32pts (down from 38p last year)

Scott will move back to #3 with a win
GMac can move as high as #5, Harrington to #39 and Lowry to #51

very dissapointed for the irish open count. after last years great show at portrush i thought there might be a bit of a buzz about the event but the place the schedule/mundane course (IMO) and lack of sponsorship has taken its toll.