OWGR - Week #43

There's been a definite sense of homecoming associated with most of the main winners this week!
KJ Choi won the tournament in Korea that he hosted for the first time, Sergio Garcia won in majestic and emphatic style
for the 2nd time the Castello Masters on his home golf course, and finally, after a fabulous finish, Donald won in... Disneyland!!!
Congratulations to them all! As a result, Sergio is making a substantial jump up to #31 in the world, KJ is moving up only one spot to #13, while Luke obviously is staying where he is - a most deserving No. 1 in the world, money list winner on PGA tour and ET, POTY (probably!), etc, etc...! Unlucky for Webb Simpson in the end, but at least he is getting a nice consolation prize in that he is now entering for the first time in his carreer the very elite top 10 in the world, knocking out, as I said before, Phil Michelson (for the first time since February 2004)!
And finally congratulations also to Toru Taniguchi who won the Bridgestone Open in Japan and with that he is moving back into top 100, to #93. No points unfortunately for Bud Cauley on the Nationwide, but the winner Gavin Coles and runner up Jonas Blixt should move inside or around the top250, while Danny Lee should enjoy a nice jump inside top200 following his T4 finish.
Otherwise, no changes in the top 9 in the world and also no change this week in Tiger's position, remaining at #55.

The OWGR table after week #43 should look like this:


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

Great work pd
This is the time of year when Americans who won't travel risk making a steady descent. Zach Johnson for one? Drop of 6 places the past two weeks and Ryan Moore needs a good trip to Makaysia otherwise his drop will start accelerating.

Apropos your earlier comment today about the South Africans, good finishes again by Aiken and Coetzee, and the next two months could be big for some of their slumpers, Els, Goose, Sabbatini etc!

Thanks kwini.
Yes, South Africans are rather lucky in that way, as they get like an additional mini-season going on for a few weeks at the end of the year. I saw Goose had a sizzling last round last night, almost as good as Luke's, but it was a it too late. I hope he'll recover completely, because he's one that I believe still has some very good results left in him for the next few years...

One quick addition about Luke's owgr status... He obviously can't move up any further from where he is, but what last night's win has done for him, is that the gap he's opened now from #2, puts him in 3rd place among all the #1's since the OWGR was introduced in that respect (you can say he's the 3rd most dominant #1 player since records began 25 years ago)...

Superb again PD, and at least a day and half ahead of the OGWR official site, I think I can speak for all on here and say we greatly appreciate the effort you put into this.

Thanks, Mav.
Matt moving up to#409...

If the Shanghai WGC-HSBC entry list just published on the ET site is true, it'll be a heck of a tournament! Some notables I don't see there though: Phil, Stricker, Day, Kuchar, Webb, Woodland... may be more...

pd,
Don't know about the rest, but sure Stricker is still not fully fit. Sure he'd be busy hunting right now if he wasn't under pressure to partner Tiger in Melbourne.

pd, have you got a link for that? I can't find it on the ET site...

NedB-H wrote:pd, have you got a link for that? I can't find it on the ET site...

There it is, Ned...
http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2011/tournamentid=2011081/teetimes/index.html

Another question there is what kwini mentioned a while ago... is Luke going to go, considering they expect a baby right around that time...

Would imagine Sergio will now play the HSBC Champions event?

Edit: hes only 9th reserve needs to win this week as automatic entry unlike his tournament.

I'm sure Donald won't be going; at least, that's what he said a month ago. Think it's Nedbank and Dubai with the possibility of some Aussie foreplay, depending on family health and well being.

Yep, don't expect Donald to go either.

From what I can see, the guys who are qualified but aren't going (so far) are Dustin, Laird, Phil, O'Hair, Woodland, Simpson, Bubba, Day, Kuchar, Levet and Fowler.

Any reason Poulter hasnt been playing much lately ? Would have thought he would be desperate to pick up some end of season ranking points. As I remember he has finished the year pretty well in the past.
He surely must be due a big fall soon as he has virtually picked up nothing since his Matchplay win.

Poulter recently stated in an interview he was glad such a poor season was over and had no plans to return to action until he ws happy with the practise he badly needed

It would be surprising if Poulter didn't return to Singapore (won in 2009) or Hongkers (won 2010), whatever he says.

I'm thinking this week's Shanghai Masters may witness one or two slightly awkward moments when Rory comes in town and meets again with Chubby and the Chubbsters...

But in any case, the rebranding of Rory by his new team seems to have started. It's just a picture right now, but it may well suggest the general direction they have in mind...

http://www.rorymcilroy.com/

I quite like that actually... But I guess we shall wait and see what follows...

I agree prince, hopefully a sign that McIlroy is under the control of people who understanding advertising and brand in 2011.

"Internet Explorer cannot display the page"

They might understand advertising and brand, but understanding how to build a webpage would also help...

McLaren wrote:I agree prince, hopefully a sign that McIlroy is under the control of people who understanding advertising and brand in 2011.

Actually Mac I fear the exact opposite.

Ned - the page is displaying OK for me but sadly rather than a picture of MidgetMac it seems they are showing us a picture of Gollum from Lord of the Rings

Wonder why the page isn't working for me then Tried it on IE and Google Chrome, and tried accessing it via google in case it was pd's link at fault, and I still can't get on it!

McLaren wrote:I agree prince, hopefully a sign that McIlroy is under the control of people who understanding advertising and brand in 2011.

Yeah Mac, because Chandler has done a really poor job of promoting McIlroy hasn't he. Probably one of the most marketable players in the game.
Any surprise that Titleist has undergone a rapid resurgence in popularity since he came along?

Wouldn't exactly be hard for a chimp to market McIlroy. To elaborate on SR's Titleist point, they will be loving having him because they don't really have any other marketable assets. Everyone knows I follow Stricker almost like Webb foolows his saviour but to be fair to Stricker he's no poster boy to draw in buyers for titleist despite his superb consistency and the fact he wins a damn site more than coco.

Then there's the other guys they have like Karlsson not exactly done much recently to make people look at his gear, or Jason Dufner hardly makes you wonder what's in his back apart from a burger or 5! Even with Matteo as a staff player he despite his huge potential os not going to be doing to help club sales until he commits to a 100% full schedule once he finishes his studies which should be anytime now

Kaymer is the only one playing from the top 10 this week, but the best he can hope for is to get to #4. On the other hand, none of those from outside top 10 could reach #10 no matter how well they'll do.
I'm hoping for a 2nd in a row by Sergio at Valderama, which would bring him nicely back into the top 20...

Otherwise, at the 'vanity fair' party in Shanghai, Rory and Lee have been paired together in the first round! That'll be fun...

So what tours is shanghai attached to?

Do we know when Rory officially converts to the PGA tour? I wonder if he will try and follow luke donalds schedule after the success he had.

pd, I'm guessing there's no ranking points on offer in Shanghai this week? Just Spain and Malaysia, plus the Challenge and Nationwide finales?

Nope, no tour attacements and no owgr points... yet (if you're to believe Chubby who apparently said recently that ET may sanction the event from next year).

Ned, pd,
I saw that the field for this Shanghai event would be worth 38 points, 44 if it had been an E.T. tournament!

Nationwide owgr allocation will likely be higher than the C.T. regardless of who competes. Don't like that!

Really? Interesting, I haven't seen anything officially, but who knows... ? Will find out for sure the next couple of days...

kwini, not sure I understood exactly... so, you're saying you read somewhere that they will award 38 owgr points this week in Shanghai?

"would" be worth.
No points will actually be awarded in Shanghai, just filthy lucre.
Should have worded it differently, but someone had done the hypothetical calculation and reported it over here. Assume they're correct??!!

I see... didn't check what could've been worth, but 38 sounds reasonable...

It's been a case of 'letting the clubs do the talking' in Rory's case in Shanghai. Leading after a superb 8-under par 64 round! Mahon 2nd followed by Casey, Poults and Padraig with 5-under.
Lee finished with 69 and is 5 shots behind Rory...

PD

Did you see that Westwood seems to have described rory’s switch to horizon as Bizarre? Must have added some spice to the pairing in Shanghai. I wonder if lee really feels it is a poor move for McIlroy or whether he see’s it as a loss of status for team chubb and therefore a resulting drop in potential for him?

It was interesting that McDowell has said that Rory would have left under friendly conditions as pro’s know they have a long career and would not wish to burn bridges they may later rely on. I hope Lee can move on and not spoil he relationship with Rory.

I will add due to internet restriction at work I am unable to search for the source of Westwoods comment, I saw it in the McDowell story on bbc sport.

I think you are reading too much into it Mac, it's just a change of management company. Who cares? He's still a professional golfer, and nothing we see will change.

McLaren wrote:
I will add due to internet restriction at work I am unable to search for the source of Westwoods comment, I saw it in the McDowell story on bbc sport.

It was a two-word tweet, I wouldn't read too much into it.

Apparently Lee tweeted something like "bizarre decision". Rory then reportedly "unfollowed" Lee. Seems there may be a little ill feeling somewhere.

Twitter is reporting today there is a YouTube video of Lee and Rory on the 1st tee at Shanghai - I haven't looked at it but the tone of the tweets suggests it may have been a little frosty

EDIT: scratch that last part - I've just been told it was someone trying to be funny and the video was actually Monty Python's Fish Slapping dance!

I agree I would not have read so much into it if I had known it was merely one tweet but it seems given what davie reports that one tweet has caused somewhat of a rift between the two. It only confirms what I thought about some of the chubby clan and that is they are a little like a high School clique. You would have thought choice of management company was something above a friendship and not crucial to it.

You would have thought choice of management company was something above a friendship and not crucial to it

In Most parts and on 9 out of 10 occaisions i'd completely agree with this staement, however Lee is better positioned to know what maybe has gone on behind the scenes of the switch so may know why it's a bizarre decision.

I think if true that Rory unfollowed Lee on the back of a simple comment is another example of Rory needing to grow up and man up. A little childish if you cannot take criticism from a friend.

Not quite like yesterday, but still a good round (69) for Rory today in Shanghai, means he's holding now a 2-shot lead, at 11-under par. He's followed by Noh (-9), Kim and Oosty (-8), Padraig and Mahan (-7), Karlsson and Poults (-6), Lee, Monty, Charl and Daly (-5), etc...

In Japan some of the old guard seem to come back to the fore the last couple of weeks, with the 'smiling assassin' now tied for 2nd place...

Maverick wrote:

You would have thought choice of management company was something above a friendship and not crucial to it

In Most parts and on 9 out of 10 occaisions i'd completely agree with this staement, however Lee is better positioned to know what maybe has gone on behind the scenes of the switch so may know why it's a bizarre decision.

I think if true that Rory unfollowed Lee on the back of a simple comment is another example of Rory needing to grow up and man up. A little childish if you cannot take criticism from a friend.

See westwood replied to someone on his twitter saying dont believe everything you read in the papers and internet...

The 2010 model Jeff Overton turned up in Malaysia and shot a 62 to share the halfway lead with Freddie Jac, one shot ahead of Bo Van Pelt and three ahead of Mark Wilson, Cink, Jimmy Walker and Jhonny Vegas.
A one-over-par 72 for Allenby on a day when guys were going low, even Vijay roaring up the leaderboard with a 64.

Brian Davis in with a second straight level par round of 71 and he's still in contention for guaranteed last place money.

Cheers, kwini, only now I saw your post here about Malaysia, just posted on your thread... Certainly a great round from Overtone, as I was saying, didn't really expect that from him considering his pretty poor season so far...

Rory marching ahead in Shanghai, scored another great 65 today to move to 18-under, and he's now 3 shots ahead of AK who also scored a 65 (not sure if he's got a haircut or not)... Noh is 3rd and Poults moved to -11 after a very good 67, sharing 4th spot with Mahan. Lee at -7, Harri at -6, etc... I wonder how are they going to split the 2 million bucks if Rory wins this, between himself, Chubby and Horizon...

Otherwise, BoVan is leading in Malaysia after Rd 3, one ahead of Overton. Duffner with the round of the day there...
And you'll also be pleased to know that Nonaka-san is leading after 3 rounds in Japan...

Guessing the Malaysia tournament to be about 28 points to the winner?

One of those weeks where Tiger could fall a few places, and certainly be vulnerable to leaving the top 60 next week; for some reason a lot of players in the 45 - 65 owgr range are playing this week.

Also, Eddie Molinari will really start to hit the skids if he can't start finding some top tens.

CIMB should be in the 30-32 range, need to do a more precise count to confirm this.

As for Tiger, it's true, many lining up to move ahead of him and Freddy is almost certain to do that. But for the others after him it's not a done deal and they need to get some really top finishes. As a reference, Mark Wilson could only overtake him with a solo 4 or better...

And talking about owgr points, note that the HSBC should be now worth 'only' 66-68 points after Luke confirmed he's not playing... Still, it'll be a proper WGC field strength next week...

pd,
I was thinking some of the guys around Woods haven't clocked up that many points recently and could use some 100%'ers for a few weeks before Eldrick gets to his Thousand Oaks benefit in December.

Not sure exactly who's missing next week. Donald on paternity leave, Stricker on the sick list, Mickelson at In-N-Out Burger, who else?

Mickelson is a bit of an ofd one for me for next week, he's not in the HSBC field at the moment, but yet he confirmed he'll play the following week in Singapore. You'd think would've made sense to play HSBC as well, considering also he's a former winner there...

I'm not sure, but I think the winner of the Andalucia may get a last minute pass for the HSBC, so Ramsey or Sergio, etc. could get in....

It would be good for Sergio, former winner, but was it the same course?
Dunno.

I think it's been the same course since 2006, at least that's what it says on the ET site. So Sergio and Phil should have good memories from there. Howler, YE and Franny are the other past winners...