OWGR - Week #16

Congratulations to all the winners in the main events this week!!
Valero doesn't really compare with the Open, but this win must feel just as sweet for Ben Curtis... great to see him wining a tournament once again! It may not be a very rich one in terms of owgr points, but the 24 points should be enough to lift him about 130 places somewhere around a very respectable #155.
A quite incredible achievement for the 23 year-old South African Branden Grace who won the Volvo China Open, his 3rd win on the European Tour in just a few months. He is moving to another carreer best of #66, while the runner up and former champion Nicolas Colsaerts climbs very close to the magic top 50 line, also to a carrer best #54.
Lee Westwood has made the Indonesian Masters his own the last couple of years and successfully defended his title this week. The 20 points earned not quite enough to move him anywhere, but at least he manages to reduce the gap to #2 to just under one point.
And finally, Hiroyuki Fujita wins the Tsuruya Open in Japan earning 18 points and moving back up to #72.

Otherwise, very little significant movement around the rankings, with the top 10 remaining unchanged, but King Louis manages to climb one more spot to #11. And we say welcome to the top 100 to John Huh (#90), what an incredible come back that was!

The OWGR table after week #16 should look as follows:

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

Branden Grace #66.

Exhibit A why I think the ranking period is one year too long.

My goodness what else does a player have to do get into the USOpen. He has won 3 events pretty big events this year.

He is carrying all the baggage from Challenge Tour and Sunshine tour in his Two year resume which is killing his average. he is about 11th in Gross points earned in 2011. He now has to have another high finish to get into top 60 and avoid Sectional qualifying.

There's a classic example of what golfers don't understand about these rankings.
Ryan Moore, languishing last week at #71, has a decent tournament in Texas, finishes 8th, earns $180K, and drops two places in the owgr's. Hopefully next year's Texas Open will draw a better field and top ten finishers will get their just owgr rewards!

Only one week until the cut-off for The Players, and these golfers in the top 60 are not yet sure of a place in the field (assuming those in the top 44 will remain in the top 50 through this coming weekend):
#45: Casey: playing in Korea
48: K-t Kim: playing in Korea
52: F'dez Castano
54: Colsaerts
55: Ishikawa
58: Rock
60: Jimenez: playing in Korea

Much more movement next week with plenty of points in New Orleans and a decent supply in Korea . . . .

Thanks pd

Ryan Moore (#71) earned 3.6 pts got passed by three players

Grace Win in China and 32 pts #86 => #66
Coetzee (T4)in China and 8.64 pts #73 => #70
Fujita Win in Japan and 18 points #87 => #72

But Moore passed Allenby who was idle.

it was not so much that Moore fell back, than three players moved by him with better finishes, and two of those players won their respective events.

GPB,
I completely understand that . . . . . .

is the Ballintines field looking alot worse that last year? i presume LW and Dustin johnson being away this year will damamge the OWGR.
any other noteable absentees?

GPB - Agree that Grace would deserve to play in Majors after a start like this, but would rather use a different route and include a separate category in the majors qualification criteria for cases like this, e.g. those who have 3 or more wins that season/past year should qualify regardless of owgr position, or something like that... (problem with this is that it'll work ok for the PGAT and ET, but would have to be somewhat weighted for the weaker tours, don't know...)

We have to remember that this are pretty rare situations we're talking about and it's not a good idea to try and change a broad/general owgr system which is struggling anyway to keep up with so many different situations and circumstances, as it'll almost certainly harm it badly somewhere else... In other words, I think such special circumstances should be dealt with using special rules...

And talking about how rare a situation this is, we were wondering yesterday if there has been anyone else who came out of Qschool and had 3 wins in their first season... The ET was telling us yesterday after Grace's win that he is only the second player in ET history to achieve that, but wouldn't say who the first one was... Took me a while to dig out who are they talking about and I think I found the culprit... Johan Edfors in 2006!

He won also 3 times in the space of 4 months or so, between March and July that year: TLC Open in China, British Masters (remember that?) and the Scottish Open! The interesting thing about Edfors is that 2006 remained his best season ever and never won again since on the ET... I don't expect Grace to have the same fate, but just goeas to show once again that golf is very much a long term thing and judging things on the heat of a moment is not the best way to do things...

The other interesting thing is that Edfors's wins were in arguably tougher events (total of 116 owgr points for Edfors vs 86 for the three events won by Grace, which included one with a field of only 35 players...)

Agree 100% that Grace deserves a place in the US Open, but i don't believe it's the fault of the World Rankings. It's up to the US Open Organisers to find a place for him if they feel he is deserving.

Perhaps the US Open organisers should have a good look at the fact that they gave out over 60 places through local/sectional US qualifying in 2011 and probably will in 2012 as well. This will result in several amateurs, several journeymen(apologies for using that term!) and probably only a handful of quafifiers using this route that are part of the Top 150/200 in the Worlsd Rankings. If Grace missed out, don't blame the OWGR !!

My problem with the two-year system is not so much with Brandon Grace as it is with first year players.

Brandon Grace has been a pro for awhile and his 2 year resume is completely populated with events from the Challenge and Sunshine tour. It is going to take him awhile shed the baggage from the 2011 and 2010.

My beef about the two year system is with 1st year players (for example: Tom Lewis and Bud Cauley). With a 40 tournament minimum, they have to play exceptionally to qualify for this years majors and WGCs event.

How about the case of John Huh? He has played 11 tournaments this year and has another 17 tournaments from OneAsian and Korea tours. Hypothetically, lets assume John Huh is a bona-fide first year player and never played any pro-tournaments until the Sony Open 2012.

Huh has grossed 58.52 pts this year in 11 events. Discounting those gross points to 56.25% of original value (average 2 yr deprecation) and dividing by 11, his "trending" OWGR average is 2.99 which is high enough to be in the top 40, which is where I would rank him. High enough to get into US Open, British Open and Bridgestone.

John Huh and Brendan Grace are in similar position but not exactly. Both have a lot mediocre finishes in low rated events that they are dragging down OWGR ranking.

Contrast Huh and Grace's year with Top 50 players like Nick Watney, Simon Dyson, Alvaro Quiros, and Paul Casey. Based on 2012 results, Watney is trending to a 1.75 avg and a ranking in the 80's. Dyson, Quiros and Casey are doing even worse.

John Cregan. I disagree, it is up to the OWGR to determine the best 60 golfer in the world rankings, not the USGA. Players like Brandon Grace and John Huh are playing quality golf and they should be ranked well inside the top 60.

Players like Paul Casey (1.76 gross points this year) and Alvaro Quiros (6.76 gross points) are playing awful and should not not be inside the top 60 right now.

GPB,

You miss my point. My point is that the USGA(IMO) devalue the status of a Major Golf Championship by handing out 60+ places through local/sectional US qualifying while at the same time a player like Grace, having 3 wins in 4 months could miss out. You can bet that Grace will have a higher ranking than ALL of those who qualify this way. These 60 + will include plenty of Amateurs plus plenty of golfers who are outside the Top 500 in the world.

I fundamentally disagree with your view that Grace should have a ranking higher than Quiros or Casey. IMO, the strength of the system is shown by the fact that Top players get time(not unlimited) to recover from a 3/6 month loss of form........................

I agree the field at the US Open is diluted with qualifiers. that is part of the charm of the US Open. That a player like Roy McAvoy (Tin Cup)has a chance to play.

But the Open Championship field is also diluted with qualifiers as well as the PGA Championship (with Club Pros).

The deepest field, from #1 to #130 is the Players as nearly every players in ranked inside the top 500 of the OWGR. Not one other field in golf can claim that.

It is my contention that is the OWGR's responsibility to identify the top 60 players. and the two year ranking system does not do that. First year players, and players who are carrying baggage from secondary tours have little chance to make it into the top 60.

It is not the USGA's fault that Brendan Grace is not in the top 60, it is the OWGR's. IMO, The two year ranking system is one year too long

OK, moving on, an early rough count for this week suggests:

- New Orleans @ ~50 (up from 46 last year)
- Ballantaines @ ~32 (well down from 42 last year)

Luke would need a top 6 or so to get back to #1...

Luke was T8 last year amongst a pretty good leaderboard.

Missed cuts for McDowell and Rose - imagine both will improve on that!

PS: Huh and Snedeker the highest ranked (only ones inside the top 100, so far) of a number of withdrawals.

ok, then we can settle for 50 pts for now...

Something that's only just occurred to me about the current rankings - what's happened to the South Americans? Not long ago that we had Villegas, Cabrera and A Romero all safely top-50, Vegas threatened it briefly last year, and going back a bit further there were the likes of E Romero, Franco and Coceres. Just checked the OWGR site now, and the highest S American is Villegas at 126, and only 4 of them are inside the top 200. Almost as though the decision to give their tour ranking points has wrecked their players' form.

Adjusting the early counts to ~50 pts for Zurich and ~32 pts for Ballantines.

Ned, the South Americans are a dissapointment, no doubt, simply no decent results to show over the last year or so. Not sure if it has anything (yet) to do with what it's happening with that tour, but I declare myself quietly suspicious until I see how it works out later in the year when it kicks off... It's a bit strange already (is it going to be only one tour or two tours, not clear) as it seems that the previous TLA tour is still functional, with a couple of tournaments already granted owgr points this year...

RE: "It's a bit strange already (is it going to be only one tour or two tours, not clear) as it seems that the previous TLA tour is still functional, with a couple of tournaments already granted owgr points this year..."

Hello all... newbie here. New to this forum here... but not to golf.

RE: TLA/PGAT. From what I've heard the plan is for the PGA Tour Latinoamerica to "overlay" the TLA, not dissimilar to the way the One-Asia Tour overlay's parts of the Korean and Australasian Tours. Not all TLA events are anticipated to be part of the PGAT Latinoamerica, but the "flagship" events of the various national organizations are... approximately 11 or 12. From my understanding the tournaments to be included have been determined. The issue has been upgrading sponsor agreements to include the PGAT as party, and establishing purse/championship structures and such... (all of which has sponsor implications). Maybe things have been slow to be announced, but with the Argentine Golf Association driving the TLA end and with an "umbrella sponsor group" supposedly in place... we should be hearing things shortly.

By the way... the all TLA events have been getting at least 6 OWGR points to the winner since the beginning of 2011.

Cheers robopz, welcome to the board!

That's good to know, it looked a bit that way and hopefully it will work out well. I remember from when they made the announcement that there will be 11 tournaments in the PGAT Latinoamerica and those were already known... My guess is that for the time being there won't be any changes on the current owgr allocation for the events (6 pts) on either of these tours...

kwinigolfer wrote:Only one week until the cut-off for The Players, and these golfers in the top 60 are not yet sure of a place in the field (assuming those in the top 44 will remain in the top 50 through this coming weekend):
#45: Casey: playing in Korea
48: K-t Kim: playing in Korea
52: F'dez Castano
54: Colsaerts
55: Ishikawa
58: Rock
60: Jimenez: playing in Korea

...
70. George Coetzee (could also scrape into the top 50 with a win in Korea)

RE: Top-50 for next week... Ryo Ishikawa is also playing this week in Japan (Crowns)

It should be noted that some of the eligible Euro and Japan guys have historically skipped the Players anyway... so I'm not so sure it's all that important to them. Of the players on kwinigolfer's list... Jimenez skipped the last two years, and KT Kim skipped last year.

Ryo Ishikawa also skipped the last two years... but he had a conflict with his H.S. Graduation in 2010, and of course the Tsunami last year. I don't know for sure, but now that he's accepted special temporary membership... I'm guessing he'll participate in the PLAYERS if eligible.

Eligible players skipping 2010 were Ross Fisher, Edoardo Molinari, Jimenez, Ishikawa, Ikeda, Oosthuizen, S. Hansen. Players missing due to injuries were Stricker, AK, Michael Sim.

Eligible players skipping 2011 were Westwood, McIlroy, Jimenez, KT Kim, A Hansen, Ishikawa.

Does anybody know for sure WHICH home 2011 OoM they use for Home Tour ERV's for the Ballentines? Is it the Korean Tour or the One-Asia Tour?

Realised that I was overlooking one of the top guys' home point contribution at the Zurich event, so I'll have to do a final check on that. But it looks like New Orleans can still be a 52 pts event (just)... will come back on that one. If that would be the case, Luke could go back to #1 with a solo 7th or better... That may look a bit of a remote possibility at the moment, but he's only 6 shots away from the 7th place, so can't rule it out yet....

Hi robo, Welcome to the Golf Board!

Completely agree that most "Internationals" won't care about The Players, tho' Ishikawa might be an exception.
But being in the Top 50 on April 29th will be an effective harbinger for Top 60 three weeks later for US Open qualification. Even Jimenez might be interested in playing in that.
(Just noticed that Rickie Fowler is among those not qualified yet for Olympic Club - how his form has dropped!)

pd,
Luke has a lot of ground to make up this week - don't see the leaders all coming back to the field. Keeping his ball dry would be a good first step.

Suddenly Luuuuke looks very close to that 7th place...

Has Luke just pitched in on two consecutive holes?
Way to improve the putts-per-round stats.

OK, final count for this week:

- New Orleans @ 52 pts (just about)
- Ballantine's @ 32 pts

So Luke needs either a solo 7th or a 3-way tie for 6th or better to get back to #1! Now looking perfectly plausible...

Much cleaner card for Luke today - no evidence of penalty shots, only missed three greens. More please, and for Mr.Els also.

Looks like Kaymer is going to drop at least two spots in OWGR. Woods is going to pass him on attrition and Stricker is going to pass him with good play.

Rose, Simpson, Scott?, GMac also have a chance to pass Kaymer.

A win could be enough for Stricker to pass Bubba into the #4 spot depending on how Bubba finishes.

I think Quail Hollow's OWGR evaluation will be a little lower this year as only 6 of the current top 15 have entered.

Playing: Rory, Lee, Hunter, Tiger, Phil, Webb.

Tiger would've moved ahead of both Kaymer and Stricker this week if the latter wouldn't get any points, but let's just say this looks a bit unlikely at the moment...

Probably more interesting than that is that there is a chance we could have two surprise new top 100 owgr next week: Wiesberger and Knox! Both need wins for that and one is probably more of a certainty than the other, but we'll see...

For the Scottish fans out there, although Knox ascendance to the top 100 may look far fetched now, you'll be happy to know that Richie Ramsay should be back in the top 100 (maybe even top 90 if things go his way at NOLA).

I wonder when was the last time (if ever) when a player ranked outside the top 500 won a PGA Tour event as strong as this...? Could happen this week thanks to a Canadian fellow...

As for Ernie, a win could push him as high as #30 (but only if Dufff suddenly plummets outside top 15)...

Some slides due this week with Casey leading the downward procession of those who teed it up but made few/no points:
Karlsson
K-t Kim
Crane
Maybe Ogilvy

Haven't seen anything on Casey's plans but would guess he'll play The Players and then head to Europe unless he can score invites to Colonial and Memorial.

princedracula wrote:I wonder when was the last time (if ever) when a player ranked outside the top 500 won a PGA Tour event as strong as this...? Could happen this week thanks to a Canadian fellow...

Phil Mickelson 1991 Tucson?
Robert Gamez 1990 Tucson?

Of course there is Ben Curtis who was ranked almost #400, but he won a much higher rated event.