OWGR - Week #9

Another week gone when numero uno and numero due have let us down once again, one more than the other it has to be said...

Congratulations to Michael Thompson, a great first carreer win for him, in one of the toughest events so far this season. And what a great time to get it, as he moves right up to #45 in the rankings, booking his ticket to Doral. Same great timing and a great comeback to form for Geoff Ogilvy, nice to see an Aussie playing well every now and then. His runner up place, puts him up at #47 and we'll see him next week at the Cadillac as well. Great result and a determined entry into the top 100 for the young rookie Luke Guthrie, climbing all the way up to #64 and an excellent effort from David Lynn, who moves back up to #50, not that he really needed that, as he was already qualified for Doral and Augusta. Russel Henley on the other hand is unlucky, as he just misses that cutline by a fraction and with it the opportunity to play in next week's WGC event...

Congrats also to D. Van Der Walt of South Africa, winner of the Tshwane Open and he will move up somrewhere around#220 as a result of that. Great run by Darren Fichardt over the last few weeks, resulting in another jump up to a carreer best #76.

Well done also to young Patrick Cantlay, getting his first carreer win on the Web.com Tour far away in Columbia, and that should be enough to bring him up to somewhere around #175. And finally, a mention for Michael Hendry of New Zeeland, winner on the Australasian Tour back home, and he'll be happy to see himself back inside the top 200 in the world...

The OWGR table after week #9 should look as follows:

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

Thanks pd,
Russell Henley not that unlucky as he drives the Cadillac via the FedEx pts route (with Gay, Merrick and ChuckieIII.

Pleased to see Ben Crane leave the stage, very pleased to see Ogilvy climbing back to where he belongs.

says Michael Thompson, from Jeev Milkha and from Vijay, a bad week for the Singhs.

Ah ha! Thanks, kwini, forgot about that route, good to hear that he made it...

Little Volatility in the OWGR Rankings

9 weeks into the season and the there has been no turnover in the top 28 of the OWGR.

Zach Johnson has earned a total of 7.6 points this year and he has fallen 1 spot in the rankings.

Only Donaldson and Piercy who has started the year outside the top 40 have crashed the top 40 (to #32&#38) and only Ogilvy (#51 => 47), Thompson (#86 => #45) , and Jacobson (#62 => #48) have crashed the top 50 that started the year outside the top 50.

Thanks PD... Field update... Fujita WD last night...

As the field stands now... 65 players. 4 Eligible players not playing.. Snedeker, Fujita. Toru Taniguchi, and Peter Senior... Players by entry qualification to follow...

WGC Cadillac Players by entry qualification... ( *= Not Playing)

2012 Final FedEx Cup Rankings: Snedekder*, McIlroy, Woods, Watney, Mickelson, Rose Oosthuizen, D. Johnson, Donald, Westwood, Moore, Z Johnson, Watson, Duffner, Furyk, Simpson, Garcia, Kuchar, Mahan, Stricker, K. Bradley, Van Pelt, Garrigus, Pettersson, Scott, Els, Piercy, Fowler, Huh, Sneden

2012 Final Race to Dubai: (listing only those not alread qualifed above): Hanson, Poulter, Grace, F Molinari, McDowell, Lawrie, Colsaerts, Manassero, Siem, Olesen, Schwartzel, Cabrera-Bello, Lynn, Donaldson, Fdez-Castano.

Japan Tour Final: Hiroyuki Fujita*, Toru Taniguchi* (Neither participating)

Asian Tour Final : Thaworn Wiratchant, Marcus Fraser

Australasian Tour Final: Peter Senior*, Michael Hendry

Sunshine Tour - Final: Coetzee (Grace alread listed above.

2013 R2D standings 2/25/13: (listing only those not alread qualifed above): Sterne, Jamieson, Wood, Gallacher

OWGR top-50 2/25/13: (listing only those not alread qualifed above): Kaymer, Haas, Jacobson, Clark, Noren, Harrington,

2013 FedEx Cup standings 3/4/12: (listing only those not alread qualifed above): Henley, Gay, Howell III, Merrick

OWGR top-50 3/4/12: (listing only those not alread qualifed above): Michael Thompshon, Geoff Ogilvy

Field Breakdown by Country:

25 USA
7 South Africa
6 England
5 Australia
4 Sweden
3 Spain
3 Scotland
2 Italy
2 Northern Ireland
2 Germany
1 Denmark
1 Thailand
1 Belgium
1 Ireland
1 New Zealand
1 Wales

65 Players - 16 Countries

GPB... Regarding Ishikawa question you were asking... Nobody here to ask this morning... so I still don't have an answer... I'm outta here this afternoon for a trip to Ft Meyers/Coral.. so not "officially" working this week. Not sure if I'll come back over to Miami over the weekend (Saturday if I do) or go straight up to Tampa... but I should be able to get some insight next week for sure.

As per lack of volatility in the rankings, especially the top-28... not all that much a big deal being only 9 weeks in and there HAS been at least some decent volatility WITHING that top-28 since the beginning of the year. All but #1 Rory McIlroy is in a different spot within the top-28 than when they started the year... Significant movers = Snedeker up to 4 from 10, Kuchar up from 21 to 8. Phil up from 17 to 12 (briefly Top-10)... Dufner down from 9 to 16.

As for Zach not moving down very fast... I guess it's more a function of the the gap he had, and/or those immediately above and below him not doing much either. And most certainly he won't be staying in low 20's for long if he doesn't get something going... probably VERY soon...

robo, thanks for the Fujita scoop, I was just preparing to post my early count, and this is relevant, as without Fujita, field drops from 76 to 74...

So, early count for this week:

- Cadillac @ ~74 points (down from 78 last year; was 76 before Fujita WD)
- Puerto Rico @ ~24 points (difference from last year is that this time the 24 pts will be earned, not subsidised)

Luke's #3 spot could come under attack from three directions: Rosey (2-way tie for 2nd), Oosty (win) and Scotty (win)...

Our man Shane Lowry needs a win in PR to have a chance to get inside the top 50... that'll be tough against that field....

Oddity of the week....

OK... the 2013 WGC Cadillac will be the first WGC individual Championship ever played without at least ONE representative from Japan in the field.... So I ask... why on a Monday morning of the 2013 WGC Cadillac... is the Japanese media pretty much the only ones that are here yet?

robopz wrote:Oddity of the week....

OK... the 2013 WGC Cadillac will be the first WGC individual Championship ever played without at least ONE representative from Japan in the field.... So I ask... why on a Monday morning of the 2013 WGC Cadillac... is the Japanese media pretty much the only ones that are here yet?

[Speculation]

Japanese Media has the weekend off (Ryo missed yet another cut)
Doral is really close Miami Int'l Airport (MIA) and they have checked out of their hotel.
They would rather wait for their flight to San Juan (where Ryo is playing) at Doral than MIA

[/speculation]

Plausible? Definitely!

Count down to The Masters:
Not many not already qualified doing much to secure their place at Augusta, but Freddie Jac looks like he'll be an exception. Ogilvy also doing his chances no harm. Sterne is another who could use a big finish.
Edit: CHIII shot 68, good for T10; imagine three more 68's might do the trick for him too.

Meanwhile, Henrik Stenson is a bit under the radar this week, but a good first round offers promise he might be in Sunday's shake-up and that may get him close to a Payne in the mail.

Lowry on the other hand should be pretty disappointed with his form this week.

Final count:

- Cadillac @ 74
- PR Open @ 24

Thaworn Wiratchant could climb up as high as #32 with a win...

OK... I see that some people are already speculating about Tiger and a possible return to no. 1...
Things will become clearer later when Cadillac ends, but in principle, considering that Rory has ruled out playing again before Houston, this opens up the possibility for Woods to get back to no.1 if he wins today and then wins at Bay Hill as well in two weeks. Rory could only stop this if he scores a 62 or so today and finishes in the top 3-4 at Doral, which is pretty unlikely, obviously. We'll see...

Thanks drac, I didn't think it could happen that soon