OWGR - Week#38

Fantastic win by Justin Rose at Cog Hill !!!
With this he moves up to #17 in the world, only one position below his all time best.
Senden's 2nd place means a jump up of over 30 places for him, to #62.
His mate Ogilvy's 3rd place ensures his President Cup place and also brings him back into the top 40 in the world.
Luke is relentless with his high finishes... his lead is now the 4th biggest since the owgr rankings were introduced!
Tiger somehow manages to just about hang in there at #49!

And well done to another ausie, Kurt Barnes, who wins a pretty strong tournament in Japan and moves up to ~#140 in the world...

This is how the top 100(ish) owgr should look like after week #38:

1 Luke Donald
2 Lee Westwood
3 Rory McIlroy
4 Martin Kaymer
5 Steve Stricker
6 Dustin Johnson
7 Jason Day
8 Matt Kuchar
9 Phil Mickelson
10 Adam Scott
11 Nick Watney
12 Carl Schwartzel
13 Webb Simpson
14 Graeme McDowell
15 Bubba Watson
16 K.J. Choi
17 Justin Rose
18 David Toms
19 Ian Poulter
20 Paul Casey
21 Kim Kyung-Tae
22 Robert Karlsson
23 Hunter Mahan
24 Jim Furyk
25 Brandt Snedeker
26 Anders Hansen
27 Thomas Bjorn
28 Keegan Bradley
29 Francesco Molinari
30 Simon Dyson
31 Martin Laird
32 Zach Johnson
33 Rickie Fowler
34 Retief Goosen
35 Matteo Manassero
36 Alvaro Quiros
37 Darren Clarke
38 Jason Dufner
39 Geoff Ogilvy
40 Bo Van Pelt
41 Ernie Els
42 Miguel Jimenez
43 Y.E. Yang
44 Gary Woodland
45 Bill Haas
46 Ryan Moore
47 Ryo Ishikawa
48 Sergio Garcia
49 Tiger Woods
50 Jonathan Byrd
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51 Louis Oosthuizen
52 Peter Hanson
53 Edoardo Molinari
54 Tim Clark
55 Robert Allenby
56 Aaron Baddeley
57 Vijay Singh
58 Mark Wilson
59 Ryan Palmer
60 Rory Sabbatini
61 Fredrik Jacobsen
62 John Senden
63 Lucas Glover
64 Charley Hoffman
65 Yuta Ikeda
66 Chez Reavie
67 Sean O'Hair
68 Camilo Villegas
69 Scot Verplank
70 Ben Crane
71 Alexander Noren
72 Ross Fisher
73 Richard Green
74 J.B. Holmes
75 Anthony Kim
76 Charles Howell III
77 Kevin Na
78 Nicolas Colsaerts
79 Bae Sang-Moon
80 Jeff Overton
81 Padraig Harrington
82 Stephen Marino
83 Chris Kirk
84 Brian Davis
85 Brendan Jones
86 Raphael Jacquelin
87 Hiroyuki Fujita
88 Robert Garrigus
89 Spencer Levin
90 Fredrik A. Hed
91 Pablo Larazabal
92 Tommy Gainey
93 Jamie Donaldson
94 Carl Petersson
95 D.A. Points
96 Davis Love III
97 David Horsey
98 George Coetzee
99 Tetsuji Hiratsuka
100 David Lynn
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101 Brendan de Jonge
102 Stewart Cink
103 Johan Edfors

Camilo's finding out how hard it is to come back from months of poor play.

Ernie, Fish and Padraig among those plunging, but Luke building up quite the margin between One and Two!

Prince

You sure rose has never been higher than 16, he did win an OOM in 2007?

Rose nearly at a career high, he never made it higher than 16 as when he won the OOM he only won one tournament. Had a fair few top 10's but the ET was not picking up anywhere as many ranking points in Rose's year. Had he won the OOM last year or this that would be a different storey.

Nice to see Camillo picking up some form always liked the spiderman. What surprises me is that Casey is still as high as number 20 his form has been so poor thought he would have plummeted much further like the Tiger as his form is nowhere near that of a top 20golfer....

Quick question based on Casey has anyone in the Top 20 OGWR ever failed to retain tour card meaning a return to Q School or would he be the first. There's always the fall series for him to try to keep his card but I can't see it with his form

Mav, actually Mac is right, Rose went up to #6 at the end of 2007 and begining of 2008! Now as I just woke up with a clearer mind that's quite obvious, but for some reason last night my memory seems to get totally blacked out for that period in Rosey's carreer... He actually had quite an outstanding year in 2007, finishing T12 or better in ALL majors and WGCs! Won the Volvo Masters, came 2nd at Wentworth, Bridgestone, etc...

Well that's good to hear then JR did manage to go higher, he was always someone when he was on the ET I couldn't really warm too, but strangely find myself drawn to wanting to see him more and more now!

Any ideas on the casey question

It's a good question about Casey, can't think of anyone else in that situation right now, kwini may know someone... Anyway, if things continue this way, Casey will no doubt start to drop further and quicker until the end of the year, so we could be talking about a top 40 instead of top 20 player by then...

Re: Casey.
I don't!
Probably unique "performance"!

The Alfred Dunhill Links entry list is out and as I've said, quite a stellar field that is!!! Great to see some large bunches of Asian, Australian and South African players playing as well... Looks like the OWGR points on offer to the winner will be in mid 50's at least without even checking it...

Meanwhile, a quick look at the 30 guys who made it for the Tour Championship in Atlanta this week, will be worth about 54 points or so, but will double check a bit later...

Just noticed in the Alfred Dunhil field a few US players as well!!
apart from DJ and Daly, we have Steve Marino, JJ Henry, J. Wagner... Great to see it! You may well have been right, kwini, when you were saying a while ago that we could see a few 'new' Americans starting to travel the world a bit more than they used to...

Re: The Dunhill: Hopefully the tip of the iceberg, pd.
"Madrid" the following week and I believe this will be Number One's final event before his wife gives birth. Then three more at season's end followed, most likely, by ten weeks' baby sitting.

"Money for nothing" as far as points go this week in Atlanta; I see Laird received almost 2.5 points just for coming last in 2010.
But after that the owgr bounty will be for the European Tour.
Thought Laird would be in Scotland but, perfectly reasonably, he'll be in Las Vegas.

Pretty much like the Chevron and Nedbank bonanza when it comes to owgr points this Tour Champ... Ridiculous.

Gonzo and Co. would be chafted having Luke back in Madrid. That'll be some season for our numero uno... And to think that his reward at the end of it all will be changing nappies...! Just kidding...

Luke Donald confirmed in the field for the Bankia Madrid Masters.
Also, Matteo, Eddie and Franny.
Alvaro and Miguel Angel.
Peter Hanson and Colsaerts.
Dyson and Fisher.
Would think the depth of this field will warrant at least 28 points to the winner.

Another "committed" participant is Henrik Stenson. Henrik has only played 13 PGA Tour events this year, with a conspicuous lack of success, so does this suggest his PGA Tour membership days are numbered?

Thanks, kwini. Been caught in some important things over the last days and won't have time to post too much these days, but I'm trying to keep an eye on what's going on (had to change also my initial plans of attending for one day the Solheim Cup )...

Indeed, the Madrid Masters looks to have a pretty strong field, fair play to Gonzo and his team for putting all that together. I was a bit concerned some months ago about this tournament, obviously prize fund not that great this year, etc... Without checking properly, but based on what I'm seeing there, I would actually venture even further... 30-32 points to the winner (Luke carries a lot of weight)! But I'll hopefully get some more time next week to check properly...

Meanwhile, very briefly some owgr implications based on what's going on at the moment... No changes to #1,2,3 this week, but Kaymer is currently dropping again back to 6th. He has to start scoring some decent points to avoid this yo-yo-ing up and down the ranks depending on what others do.

After the 2 rounds in Atlanta, Tiger remains at#49, his fate there remains mainly in what Byrd and Badds will do this weekend...
And we may soon start to talk about another important pillar of the OWGR top 10 over the last decade or so, being in danger of sliding outside top 10. I'm talking about Lefty, of course... If he doesn't finish too well and if Watney puts up a good show the last two rounds and gets a top finish, that could even happen this week, but we'll see... It'll be the first time since the begining of Feb 2004 when Phil will be outside the top 10 in the world!

Not that he needs the money, but would still hope that Luke wins in Atlanta.
Unfortunately nothing too convincing from Padraig in Austria yet...
But a great performance by Europe so far in the Solheim Cup!

Phil obviously reads 606v2, or whatever the f--- it's going to be called. Proof positive of your influence, pd.
Well inside the Top Ten and Nick Watney is rolling his Red Barrel the wrong way.
Pity you didn't get to the Solheim, looks like a thriller - so long as Europe win.

Cheers kwini, Phil's back to #8 now and Tiger's right on the edge at #50 after yesterday's charge from Baddds. And he'll probably stay there by the looks of things, but I wouldn't bet on it yet after those wild swings I've seen checking the LB after each of the first 3 days...

Gonzo's having a superblast today in Austria! Must be the feel good factor kicking in after he saw the field in his Madrid Masters tournament...

Exciting last day in prospect at Killeen Castle!