OWGR - Week #25

Fed up with superstars? If so, then this must've been your kind of week... There have been seven owgr sanctioned tournaments this week and the best ranked of the seven winners was at #160! Congratulations to all of the following:

- Marc Leishman from Oz, winner at River Highlands, he's the one who was #160, but not anymore, jumping now all the way up to #78.
- Danny Willett from England, finally recording his first win, at the BMW International Open in Cologne, moves up around 90 places somewhere near #115.
- Brad Kennedy also from Oz, winner on the Japanese Tour and climbing up not far behind Willett.
- Casey Wittenberg from US, winner for the 2nd time this year on the NW tour at the Witchita Open, should move up somewhere close to #150
- Sam Walker from England, winner on the CT in Scotland, should jump up near the #295 spot.
- Lee In-Woo from Korea, winner on the Asian/Korean Tour, in Korea, enjoying a huge leap of over 800 places somewhere around #450.

Amongst other notable movers this week, Charlie Hoffman returns to the top 100 (#92), Marcus Fraser up to (I think) a carreer best #77, and Padraig Harrington continuing his nice recent trend up the rankings, now at #69...

The OWGR table after week #25 should look like this:

1 Luke Donald
2 Rory McIlroy
3 Lee Westwood
4 Tiger Woods
5 Webb Simpson
6 Bubba Watson
7 Matt Kuchar
8 Jason Dufner
9 Justin Rose
10 Hunter Mahan
--------------------------
11 Graeme McDowell
12 Steve Stricker
13 Dustin Johnson
14 Phil Mickelson
15 Martin Kaymer
16 Adam Scott
17 Charl Schwartzel
18 Zach Johnson
19 Rickie Fowler
20 Louis Oosthuizen
21 Jason Day
22 Sergio Garcia
23 Keegan Bradley
24 Bill Haas
25 Peter Hanson
26 Brandt Snedeker
27 Nick Watney
28 Ian Poulter
29 Paul Lawrie
30 Jim Furyk
31 K.J. Choi
32 Bo Van Pelt
33 David Toms
34 Francesco Molinari
35 John Senden
36 Nicolas Colsaerts
37 Thomas Bjorn
38 Martin Laird
39 Ernie Els
40 Carl Pettersson
41 Mark Wilson
42 Fredrik Jacobson
43 Bae Sang-moon
44 Alvaro Quiros
45 Jonathan Byrd
46 Gonzalo Fdez-Castano
47 Aaron Baddeley
48 Simon Dyson
49 Robert Karlsson
50 Kevin Na
--------------------
51 Geoff Ogilvy
52 Branden Grace
53 Ben Crane
54 Michael Thompson
55 Rafael Cabrera Bello
56 Anders Hansen
57 Kyle Stanley
58 K.T. Kim
59 Robert Rock
60 Paul Casey
61 Hiroyuki Fujita
62 Retief Goosen
63 Johnson Wagner
64 Matteo Manassero
65 Spencer Levin
66 Rory Sabbatini
67 Ryo Ishikawa
68 Greg Chalmers
69 Padraig Harrington
70 Y.E. Yang
71 Miguel A Jimenez
72 George Coetzee
73 Charles Howell-III
74 Ryan Moore
75 John Huh
76 Ben Curtis
77 Marcus Fraser
78 Marc Leishman
79 Ryan Palmer
80 Gary Woodland
81 Darren Clarke
82 Robert Garrigus
83 Brian Davis
84 D.A. Points
85 Toru Taniguchi
86 Pablo Larrazabal
87 Joost Luiten
88 Robert Allenby
89 John Rollins
90 Alexander Noren
91 Vijay Singh
92 Charley Hoffman
93 Jeff Overton
94 Michael Hoey
95 Sean O'Hair
96 Chez Reavie
97 Richie Ramsay
98 Andres Romero
99 Bernd Wiesberger
100 Jaco Van Zyl
-------------------------
101 David Lynn
102 Stephen Gallacher
103 Brendan Jones
...

Leishman will be sending Charley Hoffman a Christmas Card or two - you'd've fancied any number of contenders to overtake Leishman when he finished but those final six holes, which are mostly birdie holes during the week, become tricky and penal when the collar tightens and guys are off by just a degree or so.

As for Cologne, watched most of today's coverage and was mulling over whether it was the best advert for European golf. Good for Willett though, hadn't realised he'd been playing through injuries for so long - it would be nice if there was a successful British golfer under 30 to join McIlroy.

pd,
This top 100 is starting to closely resemble the top 100 for PGA Championship invitation, the top 50 Bridgestone eligibility. Great to have this snapshot insight. Thanks

Does anyone know when the USPGA will be handing out invitations to the PGA championship? Pretty large gap between ~90 and ~100, so 90 and upwards look reasonably safe to stay in the top 100 over the next couple of weeks, but wouldn't want to place a bet on f.i. Noren and Luiten staying in the top 100 any longer than a month from now.

Cheers, kwini.
Didn't really follow the finish at the Travelers last night, a case of Kiev having priority over Hartford...
Great win for Willett, hope he will build on his confidence after this... plenty of potential there, no doubt.
Othere than that, I guess not so much to cheer for for the English fans last night, pretty much outclassed by Italy...

themightyone - not absolutely sure, but I think the deadline for the USPGA top 100 cutline is July 30th...

Early count for this week suggests:

- AT&T National @ ~46-48 pts (up from 44 pts last year)
- Irish Open @ ~38 pts (up from 28 pts last year)

There won't be any changes in the top six after this week...

plenty of irish golfers in form coming into the irish open. hopefully one of Mcginley/McDowell/Harrington/Dunbar (is he playing?) can continue their recent form..... not to mention Mcilroy!

the mighty one,
Welcome to the Golf Board!

PGA Qualification:

The published limit for qualification via the owgr rankings, number unspecified, is July 30th, 2012.

The actual wording is:
"Special exemptions per PGA Of America. (This will likely include all golfers inside the Top 100 of World Ranking on July 30th.)"

Alternates are strictly taken from those immediately outside the top 70 on the PGA Championship "special money list".

Agree that Luiten and Noren have been among this season's big disappointments so far.

I'd happily put money down on Luiten making the PGA... in a smiliar fashion to what kwini was describing for Chris Stroud on the other thread, he's very much a late-season player. He didn't have his first (of 7) top tens until the middle of June last year, the year before 4 of his 6 came after the start of August. And it looks like he's getting some form going again now, second at Celtic Manor and a good couple of days this week before a poor weekend. He'll have a good few weeks now I think.

Noren is another matter entirely though... completely enigmatic it seems.

Current situation in the final IFQ for The Open (Sunningdale):

-J. Morrison, S. Walker, A. Canizares, R. Finch, M. Baldwin, J. Donaldson, R. Fisher, M. Fraser, are qualified for the Open

- Currently a playoff is on the way for the last two places between: L. Slattery, O. Fisher, T. Olesen, A. Forsyth and O. Floren...

Very glad to see Fish make it - lots of signs that he's returning to his best.

But a Ryder Cup teammate is off to sickbay - Eddie Molinari having wrist surgery, out until late September. Wrist injuries are notoriously difficult to recover from quickly and I'd advise him to target the start of 2013.

Slattery and Olesen are the last two qualified after the playoff...

Great for Fisher..............really hoping for a good Open from him.

Forecast for Portrush not great............pity.

British Open Update for PGA Tour spots...

The AT&T National is the penultimate event, the top two players, not previously eligible, from a cumulative money list taken from THE PLAYERS and five TOUR events (THE PLAYERS, FedEx St. Jude Classic, U.S. Open, Travelers Championship, AT&T National and The Greenbrier Classic), will gain entry into the 2012 British Open. Last year, Travelers Championship winner Fredrik Jacobson ($1,260,264) and FedEx St. Jude Classic champion Harrison Frazar ($1,058,436) gained entry into the British Open. Below are the current standings through the U.S. Open.

Rank Player Earnings
1 Michael Thompson $718,412
2 John Merrick $604,800
3 Jhonattan Vegas $296,083
4 Blake Adams $285,848
T5 Nick O’Hern $268,800
T5 Ryan Palmer $268,800

The leading player, not otherwise exempt, among the top 5 finishers and ties at The Greenbrier Classic and John Deere Classic will receive exemptions into British Open. Ties will be determined by the highest ranking player in Official World Golf ranking at the commencement of the tournament

Source: PGA Tour

EDIT: With a three-stroke victory at the Mizuno Open on the Japan Golf Tour, Brad Kennedy has qualified for the British Open. Also, by virtue of placing as the top two golfers on the Japan Golf Tour Organization's money list not already exempt into the British Open, Yoshinori Fujimoto and Brendan Jones have qualified.

themightyone wrote:Pretty large gap between ~90 and ~100, so 90 and upwards look reasonably safe to stay in the top 100 over the next couple of weeks...

Pretty safe maybe for a few weeks... but probably not through the end of July. There are 5 more rankings to come out before the July 30 PGA deadline... Surprisingly, in the OWGR for this week last year, the gap between #90 to #100 was actually wider... and Heath Slocum who was at #81 at this point last year... fell all the way to 107 by the July 31 Ranking. (NOTE: But Slocum still qualified for the PGA via other criteria)

Also... for the Bridgestone... last year 47 of the top-50 as of this same week remained in the top-50 at the July 24 WGC Bridgestone cutoff. #47 Sabbatini, #48 Palmer and #50 Crane fell out... and none of the three made it back in at the final July 31 cutoff.

Bottom line: Probably around current OWGR #76-77 and lower are safe for the PGA... Probably around current OWGR #39-40 are safe for the WGC Bridgestone.

robopz wrote:

themightyone wrote:Pretty large gap between ~90 and ~100, so 90 and upwards look reasonably safe to stay in the top 100 over the next couple of weeks...

Pretty safe maybe for a few weeks... but probably not through the end of July. There are 5 more rankings to come out before the July 30 PGA deadline... Surprisingly, in the OWGR for this week last year, the gap between #90 to #100 was actually wider... and Heath Slocum who was at #81 at this point last year... fell all the way to 107 by the July 31 Ranking. (NOTE: But Slocum still qualified for the PGA via other criteria)

Also... for the Bridgestone... last year 47 of the top-50 as of this same week remained in the top-50 at the July 24 WGC Bridgestone cutoff. #47 Sabbatini, #48 Palmer and #50 Crane fell out... and none of the three made it back in at the final July 31 cutoff.

Bottom line: Probably around current OWGR #76-77 and lower are safe for the PGA... Probably around current OWGR #39-40 are safe for the WGC Bridgestone.

Luiten will be losing approximately one point per week, so .02 on average per week, so he will be on approximately 1.70 on average at the end of July in case he does not manage to score any points (which seems unlikely given his performance the last couple of weeks), although I do not expect him to make the cut at the Open. Question is whether 1.70 would manage to keep him in the top 100 and if I look at the rankings right now, I would suggest that would (barely) suffice.

As for Noren: he will be needing a number of points no matter what. Noren's not playing in the Irish Open but he features on both the Alstom and Scottish Open entry list. Noren managed a top 20 at Royal Birkdale in '08 so perhaps he could prove to be a better bet than I was mentioning earlier...

Not a great field for the Scottish Open sponsored by super_realist.

Only see Luke Donald and Martin Kaymer from the top 19, and no sign of significant trans-Atlantic participation yet. Badds, Rollins and, bizarrely, Kevin Na the only non-European Tour players from the PGA Tour.

Still room for more invites I suppose.

Final count for this week:

- AT&T National @ 48 pts
- Irish Open @ 38 pts

kwini, there is certainly a bit of a dip in the Scottish Open field strength compared to last year (probably ~48 pts...TBC), but the interesting thing is the quite significant expanssion of the event before that, the French Open, which should be of similar strength to the Scotish this year... again TBC. We'll come back to that next week, I'm sure...

There's a rumour going around about the Scottish Open it's being backed heavily by the taxpayer in Scotland.

There would be a few asking for Fatty Salmond's head if there is any truth in that.