OWGR week 9

Pretty solid field for the Honda this year....   It was looking like a 64 rating... but with Justin Rose's WD it will drop to a 62 (continued shoulder issues).    But still at only 10 points behind the WGC Match Play... it's a big haul for somebody.  

For comparison sake...  Last six years of this event came in at 56, 50, 54, 50, 46 and 48.  

I haven't done an analysis of the Tshwane Open but a quick glance and it looks like another "minimum" point event in the offing.

Would be nice to see one, two or all three of the top-3 of (Woods, Scott and Stenson) to re-engage and put together a solid week.  Projections will come later, but suffice it to say for now... a win by either Scott or Stenson (even with a mullet by Woods) wouldn't be enough to overtake #1 this week... but it would sure send a signal.   And my guess... his driving issues, not withstanding... with Woods being such a "putt by memory" kind of player, the new greens at Doral next week makes him far less of a favorite than he might otherwise be.

Thanks robo,
I see Piercy's a goner also - didn't he and Rose play each other last week??!!
Don't suppose he'll change the winner's points earnings though.

I read something on the golf channel app, talking about how easy it is for Europeans to get WR points and then get into the WGC and then on to the PGA tour. It seemed that Roberto Castro was moaning, all to do with VicDub being top 30 in the world with 1 win, a few decent results and then some Meh results...Id guess it is not that simple.

ben,
If Castro (who's a very bright guy) looked a wee bit closer, he'd find that it's easier for top Europeans to get on to the PGA Tour, and a lot easier for them to fall off the PGA Tour. (Plus it's much more difficult for the journeyman European Tour player to reach the PGA Tour.)

He's also firing his arrow at the wrong golfer - Vic's success is pretty much built on good results in good events.
Also he's played well, not great, in his PGA Tour opportunities leading up to the MatchPlay where his position owed absolutely nothing to racking up points in sub-standard events.

In the time that Vic has piled up his last 80 points (AFTER the Turkish Airlines event where he beat Woods and Rose among others), Castro has played five times and collected a paltry eight owgr points; not surprising he's slipping down the charts. (But he'll be back.)

kwinigolfer wrote:ben,
If Castro (who's a very bright guy) looked a wee bit closer, he'd find that it's easier for top Europeans to get on to the PGA Tour, and a lot easier for them to fall off the PGA Tour. (Plus it's much more difficult for the journeyman European Tour player to reach the PGA Tour.)

He's also firing his arrow at the wrong golfer - Vic's success is pretty much built on good results in good events.
Also he's played well, not great, in his PGA Tour opportunities leading up to the MatchPlay where his position owed absolutely nothing to racking up points in sub-standard events.

In the time that Vic has piled up his last 80 points (AFTER the Turkish Airlines event where he beat Woods and Rose among others), Castro has played five times and collected a paltry eight owgr points; not surprising he's slipping down the charts. (But he'll be back.)

Yep.... I think you have it exacty right there Kwini... Dubuisson is not the problem... it's NO accident the PGAT system is the way it is... Finchem wants the best of the best on the PGAT... and the WGC's and Majors is their primary avenue to get that Special Temporary membership...

AND... you're also exactly correct in that getting there and staying there ain't the same thing. There's an old adage that "the easiest thing to do is to get your card, and the hardest thing to do is to lose it". That may be somewhat true for the full time PGAT fully exempt top-125 guy, who even if he's not in all the big events, still gets to cherry pick the remainder of his schedule. But NOT true for the dual tour guy who has obligations to fulfill in Europe as well. Those other full time PGAT exempt guys are exempt for a reason... and when the dual tour guy spots them an extra 5 or so events, they find out pretty quickly those "slugs" will grind you to death send you home at the end of the year wondering "WTF just happened to my card?".

The other factor is that some seem to think that even the dual tour Euro guy who has status in the big events has it easier.... I call BS on that one as well. There's a reason why they're big events... they're chock full of VERY good players and it's DARN HARD to finish high enough in enough of those events to keep a card. Besides, IMO it's a HECK of a lot easier to earn 100 FedEx points towards next years card by finishing 6th in the John Deere Classic than it is to finish 7th in a major or WGC (95 points). And the dual tour guy gets to play LESS of the John Deere's than the full time PGAT guy.

Bottom line... the GREAT players make playing a dual schedule look relatively easy... but it AIN'T such a piece of cake for a guy that's just "very good"

robo,
Looking at his ranking history I imagine that Fidel is just aggrieved that he fell out of the Top 64 for the Match Play - you'd think a Georgia Tech guy would have been smart enough to add a couple of "Fall" events, especially McGladreys and Mayakoba, when he was in good form.
For every Dubuisson there's a Colsaerts/Casey/Hanson/Gonzo just waiting to happen, or already happened in Casey's case.

Anyone know what is the EuroTour policy for its Members to play a PGATour event?

I know PGAT members have to get a release from the main office, and they are allowed 2 or 3 per year with no questions asked.

There are 7 EuroTour only players in the Honda Field this week.  (Bjorn, Donaldson, Gallacher, Manassero, Uihlein, Koepka, Casey) plus dual tour members like Rory, Clarke, Westy, Luke, Paddy, Goosen, Schwartzel, Oosty, Oleson, Kaymer and Stenson.

There are at least 17 EuroTour member playing a PGATour event while there is a ET sanctioned tournament being played in South Africa this week.


Does ET's policy change depending on whether the ET event is co-sanctioned (Like Tshwane Open) or an ET event only

I think Coetzee is playing in South Africa this week, the Caddie next!

kwinigolfer wrote:I think Coetzee is playing in South Africa this week, the Caddie next!

That is a lot of frequent Flyer miles.  He can catch the same flight as Thomas Aiken to Miami.

Charl Coetzee and Wallie Coetsee are also playing this week

Update on PGA Tour policy on Competing Event Releases (CER)... The PGA Tour has clarified their policy to make it clear that a Euro Tour member can basically get a release to play on the Euro Tour anytime he wants regardless of where the event is. In the past there was some confusion if guy who say came up from the Sunshine Tour to get his Euro card if he was considered a Sunshine or ET guy...

But at the same time the Tour seems to have strengthened (just slightly) the language whereby a regular member can't necessarily get his 3 minimum CERs at will. He can get 3, but not necessarily the 3 he wants. The objective seems to be if a player hasn't played a certain PGAT event in a while, the commissioner has more discretion in making the player commit to playing that event at some future date as a condition of getting the CER.

Also the language seems to have been strengthened that requires a player to make a CER request at least 45 days in advance.... so it sounds like they're clamping down on "last minute" decisions to go play a Euro event (ala like Phil did last year in the Scottish Open). I had never heard of that being a problem with anybody... but I dunno.

Robo:  Any idea what the ET policy is for their members playing PGAT events?

re Castro

I follow him on Twitter, the only golf-related thing he posted this week was suggesting that WGCs are the new Q-school - noting that Dubuisson had played well in Europe and qualified for the matchplay, played well again in that and voila, a PGA Tour card. Basically attempting to say what Robo did earlier on here, in 140 characters. Certainly didn't come across as remotely moany, suspect that is either Golf Channel reading things that aren't there, or being moany themselves. Like Kwini says, Castro is a switched-on guy, especially in comparison to a lot of everyday tour pros.

GPB, I am not aware of there being any equivalent policy on the ET for their members playing elsewhere, beyond the need to meet your minimum event tally.

Just had a butcher's at the NZ Open field and it seems the headliner sponsor's invitation is to Rocco Mediate!
Would think a National Open would attract a decent field but this is an all-our-yesterdays, of the Australasian Tour, plus some up-and-maybe-comers. Shame.

Any more developments/hypotheses on the identity of the undercover pro?

The "undercover pro" went further undercover for the March issue as the column didn't appear.
I still think it's more than one golfer, possibly a different one each time.
Waiting for April now . . . . in more ways than one.
Britain may have endured a "warm" winter, but it's been brutal here.

It may have been a "warm" winter but it was the wettest on record. Large areas of Somerset and Devon have been under water since before Christmas and parts of the South East close to the Thames have had bad flooding too

The course at my club has been closed or severely restricted more this year than in previous years of ice, snow and frost

No, understand that Davie, sounds awful. Lived adjacent to the "Somerset Levels" once, just can't imagine.
Saw a pic of the Marlow Suspension Bridge and the Compleat Angler the other day - tough to comprehend.
Hope everyone on here has been relatively unscathed.

I wonder if the Oosthuizen, Gay and Piercy withdrawals bring the owgr booty down to 60?

kwinigolfer wrote:I wonder if the Oosthuizen, Gay and Piercy withdrawals bring the owgr booty down to 60?

Yes it does:


OWGR webpage had the SOF at 505 EVR before the Oosthuizen WD
  
Oosty and his 33rd OWGR ranking brings 10 EVR to the field.

505  - 10  = 495 EVR = 60 OWGR Rating.

OWGR 60 Ratings 466-495.

Gay withdrawing? I'll expect a tweet from Steve Elkington.

super_realist wrote:Gay withdrawing?  I'll expect a tweet from Steve Elkington.

You're not Gay when you enter.

Is there a place to see players highest world ranking positions ever somewhere?

benson,
You can determine year-end rankings from this player history page and assume you could drill down if you so wished:

http://www.owgr.com/Ranking/PlayerProfile.aspx?playerID=7672

Thanks, woeful site though, slightly improved on the last version. The WTA/ATP sites really put it to shame!

The graphical overview is quite nice

http://www.owgr.com/ranking/rankinggraphpage?playerID=7672

Especially if you zoom in using the sliders on the baseline

That is quite a handy tool, you could easily see a players best ranking as sirbenson required.

Thanks guys, and yeah the zooming in tool looks cool and useful!