OWGR - Week#26

First topic message reminder :

This is also a test to see how the table format that I've been using works here.
So here is how owgr should look after week 26. With all those changes of divisor
that should happen this week, hope I won't have too many errors...

1 Luke Donald
2 Lee Westwood
3 Rory McIlroy
4 Martin Kaymer
5 Steve Stricker
6 Phil Mickelson
7 Matt Kuchar
8 Graeme McDowell
9 Jason Day
10 Carl Schwartzel
11 Dustin Johnson
12 Bubba Watson
13 Paul Casey
14 Ian Poulter
15 Nick Watney
16 K.J. Choi
17 Tiger Woods
18 Robert Karlsson
19 Hunter Mahan
20 Jim Furyk
21 Adam Scott
22 Francesco Molinari
23 Retief Goosen
24 Ernie Els
25 Martin Laird
26 Alvaro Quiros
27 Miguel Jimenez
28 David Toms
29 Matteo Manassero
30 Kim Kyung-Tae
31 Justin Rose
32 Louis Oosthuizen
33 Y.E. Yang
34 Tim Clark
35 Edoardo Molinari
36 Zach Johnson
37 Ryan Moore
38 Geoff Ogilvy
39 Bo Van Pelt
40 Brandt Snedeker
41 Peter Hanson
42 Gary Woodland
43 Anders Hansen
44 Robert Allenby
45 Jonathan Byrd
46 Bill Haas
47 Rory Sabbatini
48 Ryan Palmer
49 Ryo Ishikawa
50 Ben Crane
--------------------------------
51 Sergio Garcia
52 Rickie Fowler
53 Aaron Baddeley
54 Padraig Harrington
55 Ross Fisher
56 Mark Wilson
57 Webb Simpson
58 J.B. Holmes
59 Lucas Glover
60 Charley Hoffman
61 Fredrik Jacobsen
...

Larazabal moves into top 100 (#94).

Similarly, the AT&T National Invitational was worth 48 points to Justin Rose last year, but that was with a certain Number One ranked golfer in the field. I don't see such a strong field this year; if there's anyone above Nick Watney at #15 in the field, I've missed him, so this week's winner will probably earn about 40 points. ??!!

Phil, Kuchar and Bubba among a strong US turnout for Castle Stuart as well as Luke and Lee.

AT&T is not looking quite that bad, kwini. Seems to me like a 46 pointer, but will confirm later in the week if I get a chance to have a closer look. Big drop for the French Open though from the 50 points last year, they'll be lucky to get 42 this year... Is Bubba playing in Scotland (he's in Paris this week)? Don't see him in the entry list for Castle Stuart at the moment. I see Phil, Kuchar, Woodland, Sned, Palmer and Steele coming from US...

You're right, princed, Bubba's withdrawn. Can't blame him given his commitments, except not clear why he made such a big fuss about his European schedule a month or so ago!

Do you know anything about these two for the Scottish Open, kwini?

http://www.castlestuartgolf.com/press/Charl-and-Louis-BSO-Release.pdf

Can't see them confirmed on the entry list at the moment...

A bit puzzling that.
Following the US Open last week Oosthuizen stated he would be playing the John Deere, which seemed bizarro to say the least. Clearly can't play both!
As for Charl, no idea.

As I've been saying for a while now, Louis, Casey and even Goosen are going to need to play some events they wouldn't normally, or have some rapid return to good form and better results, or they have no chance of playing the required 15 events before the Fall Series. Which of course they typically avoid.

princed,
Wonder if the absconding from Aronomink of Els, Crane, Jacobson and Heath Freebie Slocum affects your reckoning?

Didn't John Deere give Louis a tractor for his far min SA or something after his Open win?

May have something to do with it? And they say there are no appearance fees in US....

kwini, AT&T is right at the border between 44 and 46 points (still on 46 as I can see it), with the French probably at 40.

Rossa - he apparently bought it, but was custom made for him...

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2010/0722/1224275195130.html

In this BBC article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/golf/13920274.stm

they say..."Martin Kaymer's failure to finish in the top eight in the BMW Interntaional Open in Munich resulted in the German falling below McIlroy to fourth".

It's not so important, but just for the record, that's not the case - Kaymer needed a solo 6th or better in Munich to stay ahead of Rory...

In relation to that question mark about Schwartzel and Oosty's participation (or not) in the Scottish Open, I guess a simple trivia question may suggest what is the actual situation...

In this article published today on the ET site:

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2011/tournamentid=2011047/teetimes/index.html

...they say there towards the end: "In total the field boasts ten Major Champions..."

TQ: Can you spot the 10 major champions in this field?

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2011/tournamentid=2011047/teetimes/index.html

Mickelson
McDowell
Goosen
Harrington
Cabrera
Campbell
Lawrie
Els
Lyle
Olazabal

Yes!

Well done LJ!
So that's obviously in contradiction with this other story that is still on the ET site:

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2011/tournamentid=2011047/news/newsid=136160.html#major+boost+barclays+scottish+open

entry lists change as players commit or remove their names from fields according to their fitness/preparation.

Maybe they have withdrawn since it was published.

Incidentally. Olazabal is unlikely I think due to recurring injury.

For info, it's final qualifying todays, scores can be found here.......

http://www.opengolf.com/en/Qualification/LocalFinalQualifying.aspx

Thanks d4s.
These are some last minute Open qualifiers from JP last weekend:
- Jung-Gon Hwang (KOR)
- Sang-Moon Bae (KOR)
- Prayad Marksaeng (THA)
- Brad Kennedy (AUS)

Tough luck for the Japanese hosts, from the 4 spots available they didn't manage to get any new ones through...

Sign of the times, I guess...

http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/golf/2011/0628/1224299714143.html

A bit disappointed with F. Molinari not coming back this year... I hope Matteo will return, last year he said the Killeen course really suited his game... Still, Rory/Gmac/Podge/Fish/etc. and the beautiful Killarney area will make it worthwhile another visit from me in a month time. Can't wait...

Great that the Irish guys are smiling on the tournament anyway.

But, when you see the work that guys like Miguel-Angel and Gonzo Castano put into the sposorship and hospitality surrounding their local Spanish events, it begs the question whether or not some local guys couldn't be a bit more creative in ensuring the Irish Open retains a premier status on Tour.

As I said earlier on my thread, the community support for the Travelers event was phenomenal and it seems penny wise pound foolish for GB&I interests not to be more willing to invest in events providing a shop window to all that's best in GB&I sport and tourism possibilities. Looks all a bit parochial from 3,000 miles away.

I have to agree with you there kwini... Although it was widely expected that this will happen, I was still hoping somehow for a better outcome than that (especially now after Rory's last heroics on the golf course). One other aspect that should help the Irish Open boat stay afloat is the almost guarranteed high attendance numbers they can count on. Last year they had over 80.000 coming in during the week, and at 25-30 euro a piece, there's already over 2 million euros in their kitty. And despite the bad times, I'd be surprised if they'll get much less than that this year...
If you look at most of the other ET events, many will get probably only 10-20% of those attendance figures.

Now they're all at it! After Lee called Wentworth 'his fifth major', now Podge came up with his own...

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2011/tournamentid=2011053/news/newsid=139517.html#harrington+heads+back+killarney

Yes, well, good for Paddy. Let's only hope he continues to support it to the max which includes lobbying his Tour chums to play it.

80,000 is a pretty good attendance. Considering how much companies stump up for sponsoring events with crowds barely half that, it makes one wonder why golf is such a hard sell in GB&I; one of the selling points in the States is the perception that golf attracts upmarket consumers which attract advertisers with deep pockets. Sure that would be just as true in Europe? In which case, beyond the car companies, where is the support?

Good news for GJ this week.... Jason Day will jump two places to #7 in the world rankings, ahead of Kuchar and GMac, despite all those not playing. Otherwise not many moves possible in the top 10. Only other changes possible are Kaymer's possible move to #3 with a solo 8th or better, and Watney who's the only one who could displace Schwartzel at #10 if he wins AT&T.