OWGR - Week #43

First topic message reminder :

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
...

princedracula wrote: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....

Appears to be correct! There is a space for Valderrama winner...

http://www.hsbcgolf.com/who-is-qualifying

And Sergio is a previous winner, right? Could be a fantastic tournament in prospect.

Having said that, I'm surprised at some of the withdrawals in black (but not at the general pattern of PGA Tour players staying away) - I thought Dustin Johnson in particular actively wanted to play all over the world.

Cheers, Sky. Indeed, Sergio won there in 2009, I think it was probably his last win before his slump in form. I think it was after a play-off with Oliver Wilson...

As I said, it's a bit strange that some of those US players chose to pass the HSBC when you think that some of them would have to travel in that direction anyway soon after next week to get to Australia... Or perhaps that's part of the problem for them, the thought of being away from US for more than a couple of weeks is just too much to ask for...

Hell of a field for Singapore in two weeks time: amongst others, Goosen, Yang, McDowell, Karlsson, Els, Oosthuizen, Harrington, Rose, Jimenez, A Hansen, R Fisher, 2x Molinari, Tom Lewis.... and making the trek from the States you have Furyk, Bradley Keegan, Simpson, Mickelson, Vegas, Overton, A Kim and Camilo. And Daniel Chopra.

Weirdly Simpson and Mickelson are bothering with this despite skipping the WGC up the coast the week before. No doubt the Barclays presence encouraged Phil, not sure about Webb's excuse. Thomas Levet pulling the same trick, of all people.

All the eligible absentees from the HSBC just make it appear like a well-paid exhibition from a US standpoint. It's shameful that it's not an in-season official event on the PGA Tour.

The mentality of the players who are skipping it is the same as those who complain about the owgr points system. Utterly pathetic. But I blame the Tour first, the players second.

So, Rory won in the end the Shanghai Masters after a play-off with Anthony Kim! The prospect of Carro flying over and watching him in the last day probably amounted to some extra pressure on the lad and he could only finish Rd 4 with a 72. AKim got close to him after the first hole, which he birdied, with Rory bogeying it, meaning that the difference was only 1 shot and kind of stayed close/even all the way through the last hole... AK won $750,000 for his runnerup place, with the last finisher receiving $25,000. Lee had a bit of a charge in the last round, but as it happens many time with him, it all proved to be too late...

Otherwise BoVan won by 6-shots in Malaysia from Overton, with Freddy coming 3rd... (Ryan Moore w/d)
In Japan the 'red-hot' Korean Bae Song-Moon almost got his 4th win in less than 2 months (!), but he lost this time in a play-off to K.Kawano...

Final owgr count for this week:
Valderama - 38
Malaysia - 30
Japan - 22
Nationwide - 20 ('cause it's the Tour Champ...)

pd,
Still a good win for Rory though, despite the tournament's "vanity" tag; going head-to-head with AK is not easy! Beeb report said lw1 scored a hole-in-one; pity he didn't wait until next week for that!

Very low scoring in Malaysia; Brian Davis scampered round in four under par and gained one position. Some upward mobility from Freddie though, and BVP up to about 25th!!!!!!!! Some recent sliders will slow their dip a little, Overton of course, but also Vijay, Wilson, Palmer and Camilo.

If you get a chance to watch Jason Kokrak in the Nationwider, watch his swing and power - haven't determined yet how good he is, but he whacks it!!