Well Done Sergio, Welcome Back

Really good to see Sergio getting back to his near best, after being in the wilderness for the last couple of years. Back to back wins must be great for confidence, I for one will hope he can carry this form through to make sure he's on the plane for the RC next year. being world number 2 for so long behind Tiger, can't have been easy for him, and we all saw a gradual decline in his form, and especially with the putter. he took time out and regrouped, but was obviously upset about missing out at Celtic Manor, but Monty brought him into the fold as part of the backroom team. So well done Sergio and keep it up.

Is it because we've not seen much of Sergio's game on the telly, so forgotten his pre shot routine, or does he seem to take an age now before taking his shot. He does seem to be a bit more figity, and stands behind the ball tugging his shirt, flexing his left arm etc?

Cant say I noticed he was slow... If you think Sergio was slow what did you think about Ramsey or Jimenez? Both so much slower. Ramsey was timed taking 2 minutes per shot for a while.

Sergio used to be very fidgety with his hands i remember, constantly regripping. That seems to have gone.

Very good to see him back winning

Great to see El Nino go back to back, and the key thing as well he didn't play that well sunday and ground out a victory I think that's a sign of better things to come. Always one of my favourites to watch especially in the flesh his shot making is to die for when he's on form.

He was a little slow sunday but then when your leading and defending a lead whilst playing not your best I think that's understandable also the fact he was playing behind a very slow group probably just found it easier to calm his pace a little.

Also is there a more fitting end to the ET's spanish events this season than Garcia spains 2nd favourite golfing son after Seve, winning those 2 events and dedicating them to memory of his idol. Also what honest interviews he gave after the wins plenty of pro's could learn from that

Solid couple of weeks for Sergio - very encouraging. I'm not sure what he's like as a bloke or how he gets on with other players, but he's one of the players I would always like to see up there challenging. Hope he stays in form for a while.

Sand wrote:Cant say I noticed he was slow... If you think Sergio was slow what did you think about Ramsey or Jimenez? Both so much slower. Ramsey was timed taking 2 minutes per shot for a while.

Is Jimenez slow? I followed him at the Open, never got that impression. Ramsay did seem to be taking his time though.

Dont think he is that slow just not particulary fast. Didnt really notice it yesterday it was just when they were speaking about Ramsey being super slow they mentioned Jimenez wasnt fast either.

I second the congratulations to sergio and agree he is a great player that we all want to see at the top of the game. But when was he ever second to Woods, maybe he reached number 2 for a month or something but long term he was never the biggest challenge to tiger?

Now that Els, Mickelson, Vijay, Gooosen etc have passed their peak he may well be the most talented player left, other than tiger, but his form is still a long way short of proving that. Having said that we have a bunch of steady players at the top of the OWGR’s who do not contend on a regular basis in majors, it would be good id Sergio could become that player. Only Donald is accumulating the sort of points we are used to seeing the top 5 players in the world do, when in a strong era.
Top 10 october 2005

1 Tiger Woods USA 17.49 734
2 Vijay Singh Fij 10.85
3 Phil Mickelson USA 9.47
4 Retief Goosen SAf 8.61
5 Ernie Els SAf 8.29
6 Sergio Garcia Spn 8.18
7 Jim Furyk USA 5.88
8 Adam Scott Aus 5.46
9 Chris DiMarco USA 5.21
10 (Kenny Perry USA 5.07

Top 10 october 2010

1 Luke Donald, Eng 10.62
2 Lee Westwood, Eng 7.49
3 Rory McIlroy, Nir 7.33
4 Dustin Johnson, USA 6.15
5 Steve Stricker, USA 6.13
6 Martin Kaymer, Deu 6.01
7 Jason Day, Aus 5.65 97
8 Adam Scott, Aus 5.52
9 Webb Simpson, USA 5.32
10 Matt Kuchar, USA 5.31


It is pretty clear from this that Sergio can pile up the OWGR points even when those around him are a lot better than the current competition.

Consistency did not used to be enough to get in the top 5 you also had to be winning regularly. So if someone like sergio achieves this they will rocket up the rankings.

McLaren wrote:
Now that Els, Mickelson, Vijay, Gooosen etc have passed their peak he may well be the most talented player left, other than tiger .....

Surely in welcoming Sergio back to form and winning ways you can't discount a comeback for Els, Mickelson, Vijay, Gooosen etc either??

How bad was Ramsey's tee shot at the par 3 16th. Looked like a half shank / heavy. Must be the worst shot I've seen a pro play when in contention to win (I can recall Darren Clark's shank O.B on the 2nd hole in the last round of the Open when leading many years ago).

But, to Ramsey's credit a great up and down from the bunker for the double then par, birdie finish.

Great to see Sergio back, Doc

Mac,
I believe the owgr ranking calculations have been recalibrated since 2005 so comparing points gained in different years is a bit apples and oranges.

But if you just look at the proportion of points, one golfer to another, that should be fairly consistent and apropos - Luke has a long way to go to attain Tiger's dominance, but to have more than 40% more points than Number Two is testament to the year he's enjoyed.

Absolutely delighted to see Sergio back in the winner's circle twice in a week. He's gone through a real rough patch, and hope this is a sign of future success for the guy.

As for him being slow ... try following Keegan Bradley around for 2 days as I did last week. THAT'S slow!!! I wasn't timing it, but he couldn't have been far off taking as long as his 3 playing partners combined ... on every shot.

Whatever speed Sergio was playing, he was waiting on many tee boxes. No point in playing like a racehorse if there's nowhere to go.

Echo Dave's thoughts about Keegan Bradley, also followed him for 36 holes and he is s l o w. Strange thing is though, when he putts, he takes an age reading the green, lining up the putt; but then goes straight up and strokes it, Badds-like. He's got that part right at least.

It's good to see Garcia winning again, but before we hail his return to the top of the game I think we should see how he gets on on courses that aren't essentially in his back garden, and in tournaments that have slightly stronger fields.

Valderrama is a difficult course, he done really well to see the win through.

What about McDowell?

ScottieD18 wrote:How bad was Ramsey's tee shot at the par 3 16th. Looked like a half shank / heavy. Must be the worst shot I've seen a pro play when in contention to win (I can recall Darren Clark's shank O.B on the 2nd hole in the last round of the Open when leading many years ago).

But, to Ramsey's credit a great up and down from the bunker for the double then par, birdie finish.

What about Jason Day's duffed drive in the tournament of champions earlier in the year, I also remember Cabrera having an 80 yard worm killer off the tee when in contention at some tournament a couple of years ago. DJs 2nd on the 14th at RSG into the English Channel?
Also the same DJ had several in a 10 minute period at PB in 2010 as he giftwrapped the US open for GMAC, I could go on but there's a good start to a pretty extensive list!!

kwini ... Bradley actually plays a lot of his non-putts pretty quickly as well, once he finally gets around to addressing the ball ... usually for the THIRD time. I've never seen anybody have so many false starts before actually hitting a golf ball. He's having great success (and good luck to the guy, as he's clearly very talented), but surely he can't go on messing about like that before every shot?!! Darren Clarke was never in the event, but you could almost feel the irritation as he stood waiting around forever. On the other hand, he was probably playing far too quickly!

What about McDowell?

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Yes, what on earth has happened to McDowell?!!! +25 for any event is a joke, even by his recent poor standards. Does it all go back to his change of clubs, or has he just been enjoying the Major winner tag too much to focus on winning golf again?

Marcus wrote:It's good to see Garcia winning again, but before we hail his return to the top of the game I think we should see how he gets on on courses that aren't essentially in his back garden, and in tournaments that have slightly stronger fields.

Can see your argument with last week if you were being picky but he won by 11 shots. This week was hardly his back garden and it was on a really hard golf course. Kaymer, Rose, McDowell, Molianaris all played. Its not his fault a few others were playing in a tournament with zero ranking points and was clearly a money oriented event. McDowell shot 82 & 81 over the weekend so proves how difficult the course is.

McDowell is one I'd love to see back in form soon. I know he's not everyone's favourite here with his mid atlantic accent etc but I for one love watching him when he's on form

Sergio has struggled over the years on both these courses, (As a pro) He's come in runner up countless times, and that finishing stretch at Valderama yesterday looked well tricky. His win by 11 strokes last week would have done for anyone, and as Mav mentioned earlier, yesterday he had to keep it together, play sensible golf and try and defend at the same time, when not playing that well. Someone mentioned yesterday that Tiger in his prime had never completed the event under par at Valderama.

Dave The Jackal wrote:What about McDowell?

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Yes, what on earth has happened to McDowell?!!! +25 for any event is a joke, even by his recent poor standards. Does it all go back to his change of clubs, or has he just been enjoying the Major winner tag too much to focus on winning golf again?

It's pretty well know he likes his booze and food, and I think he's been easing off on the accelerator for a while now, enjoying the fruits the US Open win brought; exemptions and big prize money no matter where you finish.

He looks lile he's certainly had his fair share of pork pies lately.

Great to see Sergio back on form. His ball striking is superb to watch. After coming close at the Open in 2006, where his biggest error was dressing like a banana on the final day, i was gutted that he couldn't convert his 2007 performance into a win (although glad for Padraig - Sergio in my opinion played the best golf that week).

Not sure if he will come back and finally win a major, but would love to see it.

As for the fidgeting, well he spent most of Sunday standing around waiting for the group in front of him. Jimenez and Ramsey fell way behind the group in front. I know they don't do this in tournaments, but it would have been hilarious if they had called them through, especially after Ramsey's shanked tee shot on 16.

It's too easy to look at the last 2 weeks and think "oh Sergio's had a good couple of weeks on home soil, so what?" Well actually he's had a good season, after his self imposed break to regroup last year he slumped to 80 something maybe 90 something in the owgr (not quite sure exactly how low he went). When he first came back last year I believe the Castellan (i.e. his home course event) was his 1st event back and he slumped.

The fact is 2 weeks ago he was 47th in the rankings so..he's spent the season climbing 40 odd places, that is steady progress considering where he was a year ago. These last couple of weeks are therefore not a flash in the pan, they are the culmination of a steady resurgence in form and to cap it all off I'd offer the view that dodgy putters (Sergio's well documented achiiles heel) CANNOT win round Valderrama's greens.
So to me....he's back alright!! The final confirmation of course will come when our old friend Keizo turns up on these boards again and starts slagging him off for being arrogant or a bottler and for not winning a major yet whilst Tiger has won 14.

JAS he's gone from a low of 82 to 18th in less than a season. If that was a certain you know who, there would be a collective trouser climaxing from certain quarters. I think Sam Torrance would actually spontaneously combust.

A report in the local Aberdeen paper today about Ramsey's third place finish. Ramsey's claims a spectator knew where his ball was at 16th (about 15 yards from where he was looking) and only announced where the ball was 10 to 15 seconds after the 5 minutes was up. Allegations of local support for the Spannish players.

Ramsey is quoted but to his credit didn't make a big deal about it and took the positives out of his good finish from that point onwards.

We cannot know it this is true, but I would doubt very much if a British fan would do the same in a UK competition.

ScottieD18 wrote:A report in the local Aberdeen paper today about Ramsey's third place finish. Ramsey's claims a spectator knew where his ball was at 16th (about 15 yards from where he was looking) and only announced where the ball was 10 to 15 seconds after the 5 minutes was up. Allegations of local support for the Spannish players.

Ramsey is quoted but to his credit didn't make a big deal about it and took the positives out of his good finish from that point onwards.

We cannot know it this is true, but I would doubt very much if a British fan would do the same in a UK competition.

They said on the commentary that it was a scottish spectator not sure though. IMO it only cost him a shot as there was no way he was getting up and down from where the shank finished. Still should be looking at what he did wrong on that particular shot really.

ScottieD18 wrote:A report in the local Aberdeen paper today about Ramsey's third place finish. Ramsey's claims a spectator knew where his ball was at 16th (about 15 yards from where he was looking) and only announced where the ball was 10 to 15 seconds after the 5 minutes was up. Allegations of local support for the Spannish players.

Ramsey is quoted but to his credit didn't make a big deal about it and took the positives out of his good finish from that point onwards.

We cannot know it this is true, but I would doubt very much if a British fan would do the same in a UK competition.

Why, do you think Spaniards are somehow inherently less honest than British people ? The only obvious piece of crowd intervention I can remember is Faldos ball coming back in the world matchplay when a member of the public helped him out. Im assuming the guy who did that was British.

Diggers,

You are probably right. I guess I was influenced by the allegation in the paper that the spectator was Spannish and did know where the ball was before the 5 minutes expired.

However, the British golf fans that attend tournaments are regarded as the best fans in the world becuase most play the game and I would still maintain that this would be less likely to happen in the UK.

The Faldo example is of course in your favour. I recall an interview with his caddy some time after that event. Price run his first put about 3 feet past the hole. The caddy said to Faldo he should give him the put for a half in 4's but Faldo said no. To me, on that occassion, Faldo was as guilty as the spectator that kicked the ball back onto the end of the green.

I wasn't able to watch the closing stages of the event so this is the first I've heard about this incident.

Could just as easily been a brit. There are quite a few of them living in that part of the world. I suppose it's also possible the spectator didn't know the 5-minute rule and/or was too shy to come forward earlier?

gaelgowfer wrote:I wasn't able to watch the closing stages of the event so this is the first I've heard about this incident.

Could just as easily been a brit. There are quite a few of them living in that part of the world. I suppose it's also possible the spectator didn't know the 5-minute rule and/or was too shy to come forward earlier?

Gael,
He shanked it into the trees - miles off to the right. Even if he had found the ball he would have had to take a penalty drop from a tough position and odds on would still have walked away with a double bogey 5. I think a lot is being made of this minor incident when it made no difference to the final outcome.

Gael,

Ramsey admitted he played an awfull shot and he was not making a big deal in the paper, but he did claim the spectaotr knew where his ball was and he could have played the next shot and could have got it onto the green.

The point for me is little to do with where Ramsey would have finished in the tournament. The point to me, if Ramsey's account is correct which I assume it is, is a more general point that a spectator did not do the right thing.

Golf, both for players and spectators, is a class above other sports such as football and we do not want the standards to slip in any way. Not a big step to someone "accidentally" coughing in a player's backswing.

Golf is really the only sport that brings the spectator onto the field of play. Can you imagine if fans at football matches were on the touchline, the ball would never go out of play as it would bounce straight back into play. You would also get the odd idiot who would head the ball to one of his own players to give him an advantage. You can't condone cheating, and nobody knows for a fact what happened, but whilst the public is on the field of play you will always have something like this happening. Why don't many pro's shout fore anymore - its because he stands a better chance of getting a friendly bounce off a spectator, rather than watching him duck and his ball going into deep cabbage

Doc wrote:Golf is really the only sport that brings the spectator onto the field of play. Can you imagine if fans at football matches were on the touchline, the ball would never go out of play as it would bounce straight back into play. You would also get the odd idiot who would head the ball to one of his own players to give him an advantage. You can't condone cheating, and nobody knows for a fact what happened, but whilst the public is on the field of play you will always have something like this happening. Why don't many pro's shout fore anymore - its because he stands a better chance of getting a friendly bounce off a spectator, rather than watching him duck and his ball going into deep cabbage

This reminds me of when they show old cricket matches from the 70's and 80's, and the crowd are right on the boundary ropes and run on to stop the ball going for 4. All early one day matches I have seen feature a mad dash by the players at the end of the game to escape the pitch invasion.