OWGR - Week#29

Absolutely amazing achievement by Darren Clarke!!!
This is a rushed owgr update for week 29 before I leave for the pub!
I'll double check it when I'm back (may not be a good idea after a few drinks )
Stopped around #70 as I didn't include the Viking results...

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

Lots of top performances by leading American golfers but great to see so many stalwarts of the European Tour, perhaps not necessarily the ones we expected, playing great golf for four, or in some cases three, days.

Cheers kwini.
Great to see Daren back in the top 30 and Sergio in the top 50!
Well done to Chris Kirk for winning the Viking Classic! That moves him to #77. And finally welcome to Robert Rock in the top 100 (just)!
I mixed up some numbers for Z. Johnson and BVP in the previous table, so here is an updated owgr table after week 29.

1 Luke Donald
2 Lee Westwood
3 Martin Kaymer
4 Rory McIlroy
5 Steve Stricker
6 Phil Mickelson
7 Dustin Johnson
8 Matt Kuchar
9 Jason Day
10 Nick Watney
11 Graeme McDowell
12 Carl Schwartzel
13 K.J. Choi
14 Bubba Watson
15 Paul Casey
16 Ian Poulter
17 Adam Scott
18 Hunter Mahan
19 Robert Karlsson
20 Tiger Woods
21 Retief Goosen
22 Jim Furyk
23 Francesco Molinari
24 Alvaro Quiros
25 Ernie Els
26 Martin Laird
27 David Toms
28 Miguel Jimenez
29 Matteo Manassero
30 Darren Clarke
31 Zach Johnson
32 Justin Rose
33 Kim Kyung-Tae
34 Louis Oosthuizen
35 Y.E. Yang
36 Tim Clark
37 Ryan Moore
38 Edoardo Molinari
39 Bo Van Pelt
40 Gary Woodland
41 Anders Hansen
42 Peter Hanson
43 Robert Allenby
44 Geoff Ogilvy
45 Brandt Snedeker
46 Rickie Fowler
47 Sergio Garcia
48 Bill Haas
49 Rory Sabbatini
----------------------------------------
50 Ryan Palmer
51 Jonathan Byrd
52 Webb Simpson
53 Ryo Ishikawa
54 Aaron Baddeley
55 Lucas Glover
56 Ben Crane
57 Mark Wilson
58 Anthony Kim
59 Ross Fisher
60 Fredrik Jacobsen
61 Thomas Bjorn
62 Padraig Harrington
63 Jeff Overton
64 J.B. Holmes
65 Charley Hoffman
66 Simon Dyson
67 Vijay Singh
68 Stephen Marino
69 Raphael Jacquelin
70 Yuta Ikeda
71 Kevin Na
72 Hiroyuki Fujita
73 Brendan Jones
74 Jason Dufner
75 Nicolas Colsaerts
76 Robert Garrigus
77 Chris Kirk
78 Camilo Villegas
79 Richard Green
80 Stewart Cink
81 Angel Cabrera
82 Gregory Bourdy
83 Scot Verplank
84 Spencer Levin
85 Thomas Aiken
86 Rickie Barnes
87 David Horsey
88 Pablo Larazabal
89 Alexander Noren
90 John Senden
91 Charles Howell III
92 Johan Edfors
93 Brian Davis
94 Tommy Gainey
95 Tetsuji Hiratsuka
96 Jamie Donaldson
97 Stephen Gallacher
98 Heath Slocum
99 Thongchai Jaidee
100 Robert Rock
...

You made a mistake? Bloody Hell. How do we know it's any better when you've depleted inventory at your favourite hostelry?? You leave a lot to faith.

Think we can assume the top 45, notably including the otherwise unqualified Anders Hansen among a handful of others, will stay top 50 until Monday week and qualify for Firestone.

Others from 46 thru 70 not yet exempt include:
Sergio! He'll make it barring something extraordinary.
Haas
Palmer
Simpson
Kim
Holmes
Dyson
Vijay
Marino
Jacquelin

Good work pd! Amazed that Bjorn is still so low, the numbers really seem to conspire against him, two decent wins and a 4th in a major in the past 18 months and he still can't break that top 50!

Funny you should mention Robert Rock, there's an odd article on the BBC website where he says that his season's effectively over after failing to challenge over this weekend. Would think he's got a great chance of making the PGA, for a start.

Rock's more than a bit unlucky not to earn a Bridgestone slot for his Italian job. He must be in the HSBC don't you think?

Regardless, he was unlucky (didn't putt well enough) not to win Lowry's Irish Open a coupla years ago. Hopefully he'll place well and secure that PGA berth.

Cheers Ned.
Bjorn's problem is that his points portfolio before this year is running very thin.
Here are the top 50 based on points won this year - he's #32 there...

1 Luke Donald
2 Rory McIlroy
3 Carl Schwartzel
4 Nick Watney
5 Steve Stricker
6 K.J. Choi
7 Lee Westwood
8 Phil Mickelson
9 Jason Day
10 Dustin Johnson
11 Martin Kaymer
12 Matt Kuchar
13 Darren Clarke
14 Bubba Watson
15 David Toms
16 Webb Simpson
17 Aaron Baddeley
18 Gary Woodland
19 Alvaro Quiros
20 Mark Wilson
21 Brandt Snedeker
22 Martin Laird
23 Rory Sabbatini
24 Jonathan Byrd
25 Y.E. Yang
26 Anders Hansen
27 Sergio Garcia
28 Hunter Mahan
29 Fredrik Jacobsen
30 Adam Scott
31 Ian Poulter
32 Thomas Bjorn
33 Stephen Marino
34 Lucas Glover
35 Ryan Moore
36 Bill Haas
37 Nicolas Colsaerts
38 Pablo Larazabal
39 Graeme McDowell
40 Justin Rose
41 Matteo Manassero
42 Miguel Jimenez
43 Bo Van Pelt
44 Zach Johnson
45 Spencer Levin
46 Rickie Fowler
47 Chris Kirk
48 Ryan Palmer
49 Vijay Singh
50 Peter Hanson

No Casey, Woods, Els, Harrington, Molinaris, Goosen, Furyk, Fisher, or Clark of course. Etc.

The official owgr webpage is not yet updated, but just noticed I made one other mistake... Last week Fredrik A-Hed re-entered the top 100 after his runner-up place in Scotland and I had him included provisionally at the time, but then forgot to save all that, hence he 'dissappeared' from this week's list.
What it means is that he should figure probably at #81 in the last list above pushing all below that one position lower. So, poor Robert Rock looks like he'll have to wait until maybe the Irish Open to finally make the jump into the top 100...

The entry list for Nordea Open in Sweden looks somewhat depleated this morning from what I knew a few days ago. DJ and Bubba are still in, but quite a few of the solid 'middle-range' ET players seem to have changed their mind. As it looks now it will struggle to push beyond the minimum 24 owgr point limit, down from 26 pts. last year. On the other hand, the Canadian Open looks way stronger than last year, probably somewhere around 46 points (up from only 34 points last year). I see Goose is listed in the field, wonder if he'll be able to play though after that back problem that emerged last week at the Open...

I suggest you look (with confidence) only at the top 80 in the owgr list I posted above, the 80-100 range is a new addition and I need to work a bit more to get everything right - should be ready for the next week. I see that Davis Love III will actually sneak into the top 100 (probably at #89) due to his excellent performance last week, so I need to add him in as well...

Goosen withdrew from "Canada", and so have the following from the top 100:
Snedeker
Davis
Garrigus

I see that Captain Olazabal is in the field; hadn't spotted that!

After all that, "Canada" slipping into the 44 pts bracket... Nordea is practically a certainty at 24.

kwinigolfer wrote:I see that Captain Olazabal is in the field; hadn't spotted that!

Still? Saw him in there on Saturday, assumed he'd pull out sometime between then and now! Am I right in thinking he's not teed up since he hobbled off Wentworth?

NedB-H wrote:Still? Saw him in there on Saturday, assumed he'd pull out sometime between then and now! Am I right in thinking he's not teed up since he hobbled off Wentworth?

I think that's true Ned...
At least from the way this piece of news is written, it sounds like he was added to the field just a week ago, which could suggest that he may be feeling ok now...

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/golfers-olazabal-appleby-duval-added-rbc-canadian-open-162303179.html

I'd guess he might have been offered a place in the PGA Championship, perhaps if he could prove his fitness, and he might be here for a month playing and doing some Medinah homework.

As I said, Darren Clarke is back into top 30 in the world, but his slump after 2006 from the golfing elite makes many people forget these days just how good he has been during his carreer... I just had a brief look into Darren's owgr record and it's interesting to remember that he spent almost 9 uninterrupted years in the top 30 in the world!!! From the begining of 1998 until the latter part of 2006. I don't think there are that many who could claim such an achievement...

And talking about Darren, here's another interesting article from Brian Keogh about his win last week, his relationship with his caddy and other details. I particularly liked that bit about them being allocated last week by mistake a space in the locker area reserved to past major winners...

... ooops, there's the link for the article...

http://www.irishgolfdesk.com/news-files/2011/7/19/the-madness-of-king-darren.html

That's a great article, pd, Thanks!

No OWGR excitement at the top this week... Positions from 1 to 6 in will remain unchanged after this week's tournaments.

...and ever so quietly a certain TW teeters on the brink of exiting the top 20.
How far is he likely to fall?? At what point will he have to get his finger out to avoid slipping out the Top 50?? If he returns injury free but outside the Top 50 does he get exemptions to majors as a former winner?? For regular tour events he may have to rely on sponsors invites!!

He'd only get an invite into my tournament if he gave me Elin's phone number

JAS,
I'll let the good prince answer most of these but the only Major exemption Woods could lose would be for the US Open after 2013; he has exemptions as previous winner for the other three.
But he could miss out on WGC's if he slips out of the top 50 or, in the case of the Match Play, top 64.
His PGA Tour card is good for at least another five years, though it's unsure when the Tour will start to take a dim view of him avoiding the requirement to play a minimum 15 events per year.

As stated on my "Ballwasher" thread, Notah Begay is reporting Tiger will play the Notah Begay Foundation Challenge at Turning Stone on Aug 31st, so you can expect to hear something about his playing schedule soon.

Kwini, I thought the US carried a ten year exemption, so he'd be good through 2018?

Ned,
You're right. For some reason I thought they'd abbreviated that to five years, but apparently not, Michael Campbell with three/four more years to go.
Apologies.

Is Clarke likely to get an invite to the US PGA?

I doubt he needs one being that he's now ranked 30.

liver,
He'll be exempt for all Majors now for five years, until the age of 60 for The Open.
He will presumably play Bridgestone also, the week after the Irish Open.

kwinigolfer wrote:liver,
He'll be exempt for all Majors now for five years, until the age of 60 for The Open.
He will presumably play Bridgestone also, the week after the Irish Open.

Ok thanks. Didn't see him on the list, but I suppose they haven't updated it yet.

GB&I players already qualified for the PGA Championship are: (a "B" after their name signifies they're in Bridgestone also):

Casey (B)
Clarke (B)
Donald (B)
Dyson
Fisher (B)
Harrington (B)
Laird (B)
McDowell (B)
McIlroy (B)
Poulter (B)
Westwood (B)

In addition, Rose will certainly qualify for both and the PGA tries to squeeze in all the top 100 from the owgr so guys like Gallacher, Davis and Rock should be in with a chance.

JAS wrote:...and ever so quietly a certain TW teeters on the brink of exiting the top 20.
How far is he likely to fall?? At what point will he have to get his finger out to avoid slipping out the Top 50??

Sorry JAS, been away a couple of days...
Well, if he doesn't play at all, I'd expect him to fall outside top 50 sometimes in the first half of October, give and take...

Rock is now #102, but he actually has a chance to get into top 100 this week without playing, depends of course on what others behind him will do...

Well, this may not last very long and may not happen again in our lifetime, so here it goes...
If John Daly wins this week he will leap from #827 in the world to as high as #173 !!
Hurrraaay!! Nice pyjamas...

BTW, after last recount - Canadian Open will offer 46 pts to the winner (just)...