OWGR - Week #46

Four decent and pretty interesting tournaments, with the old guard and the 'establishment' getting some revenge from previous weeks...

European/Asian Tour
There is hardly anyone, anywhere who doesn't like Miguel Angel, and everybody seems to be getting happy and joyful when he does well. A magnificent win for him once again at the Hong Kong Open, his 3rd in that event, becoming now the oldest ever winner on the ET (Des Smyth used to hold that accolade before this week). Last week I was concerned that he and Karlsson will be soon out of the top 100. What a difference a week has made, and how contrasting paths for the two in question. While Karlsson is indeed well outside the top 100 this week, Jimenez jumps back up 39 places to #59. Not only that he's not out of the top 100, but with another good week in Dubai, he could be back in the top 50 in no time... Great result for the Swede Andersson-Hed, finishing just one shot behind the Mechanic and climbing back all the way to #95. Marcus Fraser seems to do very well indeed in all the Euro/Asian co-sanctioned events and this was no exception, his 3rd place not only pushing him up to #58 in the world rankings, just ahead of Jimenez, but also bringing him at the top of the Asian Tour Order of Merit. It wasn't to be for Matteo today, a poor drive at the 13th par 5 hole, killing off his great momentum. But another very good top 5 result nevertheless, which all but ensures him of a top 50 position by the end of the year (up to #43)...

European/Sunshine Tour
A brilliant and well deserved win in the end for Henrik Stenson at the SA Open, after a very, very long time! This must feel really great and I'm really happy for him, hopefully it will be the begining of a full recovery to his previous great standard and status. Perhaps not as deserved as in some of the other tournaments, but those 32 owgr points he earned couldn't come sooner for him and he'll enjoy a very nice jump all the way to #71 in the world. And I wouldn't bet against a good performance from him in Dubai next week either... Tough luck again for George Coetzee. He had a really good go at Stenson's lead today and although he'll be upset that he's just missed yet again on his first win, he'll be more than happy to find himself inside the top 50 in the world (at #49) for the first time in his carreer. Good, solid showing from Kaymer, who is finally making a small, but very welcome move back up in the rankings (at #30).

Japanese Tour
Looked like a bit of a walk in the park for Luke Donald this one, leading from start to finish and he'll be delighted to hear that he is once again #2 in the world as a result. Fantastic runner-up finish for the very young Japanese amateur, Hideki Matsuyama (must be getting a bit frustrated though, looking at all the money he could've had by now). But he is now climbing up all the way to somewhere close to #130 in the world, being the highest ranked amateur in the world! Good 3rd place result for Kumei Oda of Japan, with which he moves just outside the top 100. But probably one of the happiest Japanese guys from that field will be H. Fujita, who is not only consolidating his top spot in the OoM, but climbs inside the top 50 at a very critical time (up to #47). Hopefully he'll be able to stay there for another few weeks... Good finishes for a few of the other 'foreign' visitors: Gonzo, Quiros and Blixt all finishing inside the top 10.

Australasia Tour
A good example of a 3rd league field down under, being brought into the limelight by 3 top stars, who in fairness didn't show up just for the appearence fees and certainly didn't disappoint. Congrats to Adam Scott for a very convincing win in the end at the Talisker Masters, in front of his home crowd and against the in-form Ian Poulter. Not quite enough points available for Scott to push him ahead of Lee, but we'll talk about that later... Poulter's climb in the rankings continues though, moving now up to #13, and with Dubai and Tiger's event still in his schedule, I wouldn't be surprised to see him finishing inside the top 10 at the end of a remarkable season for him...

Otherwise, sad to see Karlsson disappearing out of sight as we said, but it's good to see Stephen Gallacher making a re-appearence in the frame. At the same time we have to signal the downfall of two other very close to the top 100 exit, Retief Goosen and Robert Rock. We know that Goosen has been injured, but not so sure what's been happening to RRock lately...

The OWGR table after week #46 should look as follws:

1 Rory McIlroy
2 Luke Donald
3 Tiger Woods
4 Lee Westwood
5 Adam Scott
6 Louis Oosthuizen
7 Justin Rose
8 Jason Dufner
9 Webb Simpson
10 Brandt Snedeker
-------------------------
11 Bubba Watson
12 Phil Mickelson
13 Ian Poulter
14 Steve Stricker
15 Keegan Bradley
16 Nick Watney
17 Matt Kuchar
18 Dustin Johnson
19 Peter Hanson
20 Ernie Els
21 Zach Johnson
22 Sergio Garcia
23 Bo Van Pelt
24 Graeme McDowell
25 Hunter Mahan
26 Jim Furyk
27 Paul Lawrie
28 Rickie Fowler
29 Francesco Molinari
30 Martin Kaymer
31 Carl Pettersson
32 Charl Schwartzel
33 Gonzalo Fdez-Castano
34 Jason Day
35 Nicolas Colsaerts
36 Bill Haas
37 John Senden
38 Branden Grace
39 David Toms
40 Robert Garrigus
41 Ryan Moore
42 Scott Piercy
43 Matteo Manassero
44 Thomas Bjorn
45 David Lynn
46 K.J. Choi
47 Hiroyuki Fujita
48 Jamie Donaldson
49 George Coetzee
50 Fredrik Jacobson
-------------------------
51 Geoff Ogilvy
52 Alexander Noren
53 Rafael Cabrera Bello
54 Thorbjorn Olesen
55 Martin Laird
56 Richie Ramsay
57 Shane Lowry
58 Marcus Fraser
59 Miguel A Jimenez
60 Marcel Siem
61 Bae Sang-moon
62 Greg Chalmers
63 Kevin Na
64 Anders Hansen
65 Bud Cauley
66 Padraig Harrington
67 Bernd Wiesberger
68 Simon Dyson
69 Aaron Baddeley
70 John Huh
71 Henrik Stenson
72 Kyle Stanley
73 K.T. Kim
74 Jonas Blixt
75 Vijay Singh
76 Ben Crane
77 Ryo Ishikawa
78 Jonathan Byrd
79 Alvaro Quiros
80 Pablo Larrazabal
81 Thaworn Wiratchant
82 Ben Curtis
83 Toru Taniguchi
84 Brendon de Jonge
85 Michael Thompson
86 Mark Wilson
87 Marc Leishman
88 Noh Seung-yul
89 Y.E. Yang
90 Gaganjeet Bhullar
91 Jeff Overton
92 Tim Clark
93 Ross Fisher
94 Yuta Ikeda
95 Fredrik Andersson Hed
96 Danny Willett
97 Charlie Wi
98 Jeev Milkha Singh
99 Robert Rock
100 Retief Goosen
------------------------
101 Koumei Oda
102 Brendan Jones
103 Stephen Gallacher
...

Hideki Matsuyama climb in the World Rankings is indeed impressive.

And only 16 tournaments in his 2 year resume. Phantom ranking would be somewhere in the low 60's if they actually used a true divisor!

Sorry to see Robbie Karlsson go; and Wagner's left us also, with his Johnson between his legs presumably.

Jason Day starting to slide, and KJ Choi & Ogilvy drifting too. What with K-t Kim's abysmal record this week/year and Allenby and Ryo's vanishing job, Adam Scott doesn't need to shop at Aquascutum to figure out where they lost the Presidents Cup.

Cheers pd

Kwini: Don't forget YE Yang.

And look who Norman didn't pick. Pssst he is number 6 in the OWGR and recent Major winner.

GPB,
Had clean forgotten he was in the Team, which tells its own story. Good shout on #6 but, to be fair, his run of compellingly good form had only just started when Shark made his picks.

Early count for next week:

- Dubai @ ~60 pts (58 pts last year)
- Casio @ ~18 pts

- Top 3 will remain the same
- Scott will move to #4 if Lee finishes worse than ~11th
- Scott, Oosty and Rose could move to #4
- Poults could climb as high as #6 if he wins
- Any of the guys playing, down to Sergio, could move inside the top 10...

On KT-Kim, agree, his PGAT experience obviously ran into some sort of difficulties... (maybe found it hard to adapt... not unusual for Asian players for that to happen)

However, money wise he's not doing too badly... Won ~$740k in Japan this season, plus ~220k in US, plus a couple of events on Korean tour, so he's rounded about $1,000,000 this year... If he goes on to win Casio next week, could get back inside the top 55-60... Then the week after they have their own end-of-year limited field, free-money, free-points event where he can easily get some more, and you never know...

Found a small error in the points allocation for Andersson-Hed and gave him less points than he deserved... It means he's actually up to #95...

princedracula wrote:

Otherwise, sad to see Karlsson disappearing out of sight as we said...

Another great write up PD... and thanks for your work on the rankings...

But on a positive note for Robert Karlsson... at least he did finish first in his 2nd stage PGA Tour qualifier. So at least he's still got a Euro Tour card and the PGAT for next year is still in his sights. BUT... I have to question Robert continuing to dual-tour. It's very doable for those who can qualify for the Majors and WGC's... but man it's gotta be tough for those who can't get into at least 5 or 6 of them. And if he's not playing all that well... it seems concentrating on one tour or the other might serve him better right now... just sayin....

if George Coetzee can learn to play as well on sundays as he does thurs to sat then he will be a formidable player

Only following Dubai every now and then via the leaderboard, but still looks very interesting...

This is how owgr would look based on the situation as it stands after Rd3:

1 Rory McIlroy
2 Luke Donald
3 Tiger Woods
4 Adam Scott
5 Louis Oosthuizen
6 Lee Westwood
7 Justin Rose
8 Jason Dufner
9 Webb Simpson
10 Brandt Snedeker
----------------------------------
11 Bubba Watson
12 Ian Poulter
13 Phil Mickelson
14 Steve Stricker
15 Keegan Bradley
16 Nick Watney
17 Peter Hanson
18 Matt Kuchar
19 Dustin Johnson
20 Ernie Els
21 Zach Johnson
22 Sergio Garcia
23 Bo Van Pelt
24 Graeme McDowell
25 Hunter Mahan
26 Jim Furyk
27 Paul Lawrie
28 Charl Schwartzel
29 Francesco Molinari
30 Rickie Fowler
31 Carl Pettersson
32 Martin Kaymer
33 Gonzalo Fdez-C.
34 Branden Grace
35 Jason Day
36 Nicolas Colsaerts
37 Bill Haas
38 John Senden
39 Robert Garrigus
40 David Toms
41 Ryan Moore
42 Scott Piercy
43 Matteo Manassero
44 Thomas Bjorn
45 David Lynn
46 K.J. Choi
47 Jamie Donaldson
48 Hiroyuki Fujita
49 George Coetzee
50 Thorbjorn Olesen
---------------------------------
51 Alexander Noren
52 Fredrik Jacobson
53 Richie Ramsay
54 Rafael Cabrerra-Bello
55 Geoff Ogilvy
56 Marcus Fraser
57 Miguel Jimenez
58 Martin Laird
59 Marcel Siem
60 Shane Lowry
61 Anders Hansen
62 Padraig Harrington
63 Henrik Stenson
...

That is very cool.
Now I have to get up crack of sparrows to watch the play and see how it all works out.
Come on Luuuuuuke!

T48 from Westwood and falls behind Rose and Scott in the OWGR.

If he was a stock, I would be selling!

GPB wrote:T48 from Westwood and falls to behind Rose and Scott.

If he was a stock, I would be selling!

Yeah... It looks as though Westwood may have fired his shot over the bow when he used those smaller events to elevate himself into #1 a while back. I just don't see him getting back... even with him moving to the states and rededicating himself. Just a little too late for that IMO.

He needs to reinvent himself, not just rededicate himself.
Played so well for so long, but now bereft of confidence, unless he's playing Smiley Kuchar in a crucial Ryder Cup singles, of course.
Recipe:
1).Go back to Europe.
2).Go back to Billy Foster.
3).Practice your short game until you believe in yourself, and not just Pete Cowen or Tony Johnstone.
4).Don't listen to the Chubster.
5).Enjoy golf again.

kwinigolfer wrote:He needs to reinvent himself, not just rededicate himself.
Played so well for so long, but now bereft of confidence, unless he's playing Smiley Kuchar in a crucial Ryder Cup singles, of course.
Recipe:
1).Go back to Europe.
2).Go back to Billy Foster.
3).Practice your short game until you believe in yourself, and not just Pete Cowen or Tony Johnstone.
4).Don't listen to the Chubster.
5).Enjoy golf again.

I agree it's a confidence issue, but don't necessarily agree with your suggestions, Kwini. I have no idea why, but Westwood interests me more than any other golfer. I always look for his scores, but lately it's been like being a QPR supporter!

He's obviously decided to give it a proper shot in the US, and in terms of building confidence I don't think that's such a bad idea, since it'll give more consistent weather and courses, which seems to be his main motivation (in particular the practice side over winter).
As for Billy, I fully expect them to be reunited at some stage when Billy's recovery is complete, if (fingers crossed) it ever is. In the meantime, I like the fact that he's taken the guess work out of when they'll be back together.
The short game practice is the key to this, again hopefully having the sun on his back over the next few weeks while he does that will make the difference.
Chubby hasn't done him much harm thus far, nobody's perfect but Lee's definitely his number one man.
Enjoy golf again? He's not lost the ability to laugh on the course, though I do at times wonder whether it's a case of 'if I didn't laugh I'd have to cry'. If anything, I'd like to see more of a game face.

I'm surprised you didn't add 'Learn how to play the par 5s to the best of your ability.' Rory was a case in point on 18 today. Made a great 4 from a layup despite being comfortably within iron range. Westwood's pretty good from 100 yds, but rarely lays up and often makes 6s on reachable par 5s by short siding himself. I know you've raised this many times yourself, and I think it's absolutely key if he's to stay at the top of the game and hopefully bag a biggie.

Smithers, I too have a fatal attraction (not as bad as a similar compulsion to follow everything Portsmouth Football Club) to Westwood.
Just feel as if he got to the top doing it his way and now he's listening to a hundred different people, possible an unfortunate result of having been so open with the press these past couple of years.

You're spot on of course with the par 5's, almost as if he makes the advantage of his long straightish hitting a handicap with his chipping and putting.

Best wishes to him for a great 2013!