OWGR - Week #36

This is great, I can start to use a lot of cut&paste to write this if he keeps winning so regularly!
Another absolutely fantastic win for the Boy Wonder! Beating all the best golfers in the world seems to be getting very natural and fun for Rory these days. Looks like we will stop talking about who's going to become #1 for a while, and concentrate instead on how large the gap to the 2nd place has become. Make that over 3 (three) points already!! Tiger moves to #2 in the world as we anticipated, and considering these guys' schedules from here on, it'll be a while until Rory's top position will be challenged again. A great week for Lee Westwood and Phil Mickelson sharing the runner up spot. Lee badly needed this to keep some decent distance to the #3 place occupied now by Luke Donald, while Phil is moving up to #15. And a great performance from R. Garrigus who is climbing well inside the top 50 in the world, at #42. Once again, Padraig is moving up a few places to #57, but fails once again to make a significant move. And that's a pitty, because this stretch of high owgr point tournaments is finished for him and chances to accumulate significant points will be diminishing from here on...

Congratulations also to Peter Hanson for his great win at the KLM Open, peaking just at the right time as many others in the European RC team. Hanson is moving up to a carreer best #23 in the world as a result. Great result also for Ramsay and Larrazabal, runners up in the event, climbing to #60 and #75, respectively. Jamie Donaldson just about hanging on to his #50 spot in the end...

Seems to be a good week for the veterans, one of them being the 45-year-old Thaworn Wiratchant of Thailand, who won his 14th title on the Asian Tour, breaking his fellow countryman Jaidee's record of 13 titles in the process. He should move up inside the top 120. Well done also to Ashun Wu of China, winner on the Japanese tour, moving up to somewhere around #280, to Alexandre Kaleka of France, winner in Russia on the Challenge tour and moving up to around #250 and also to Matthew Griffin from Oz, winner in Korea on the OneAsia Tour and moving up to ~#650. And finally, a special mention to the young Argentinian Tommy Cocha, the first winner on the new PGA Latinoamerica Tour (in Mexico), who should enjoy a good leap of around 450 spots to somewhere ~#666 (just to make it interesting )...

The OWGR table after week #36 should look as follows:

1 Rory McIlroy
2 Tiger Woods
3 Luke Donald
4 Lee Westwood
5 Adam Scott
6 Webb Simpson
7 Jason Dufner
8 Bubba Watson
9 Justin Rose
10 Louis Oosthuizen
--------------------------
11 Steve Stricker
12 Dustin Johnson
13 Keegan Bradley
14 Matt Kuchar
15 Phil Mickelson
16 Zach Johnson
17 Graeme McDowell
18 Sergio Garcia
19 Brandt Snedeker
20 Hunter Mahan
21 Nick Watney
22 Ernie Els
23 Peter Hanson
24 Bo Van Pelt
25 Ian Poulter
26 Rickie Fowler
27 Jim Furyk
28 Charl Schwartzel
29 Paul Lawrie
30 Francesco Molinari
31 Jason Day
32 Martin Kaymer
33 Bill Haas
34 Carl Pettersson
35 Nicolas Colsaerts
36 John Senden
37 David Toms
38 K.J. Choi
39 David Lynn
40 Martin Laird
41 Thomas Bjorn
42 Robert Garrigus
43 Geoff Ogilvy
44 Fredrik Jacobson
45 Gonzalo Fdez-C.
46 Rafael Cabrerra-Bello
47 Aaron Baddeley
48 Bae Sang-Moon
49 Simon Dyson
50 Jamie Donaldson
---------------------------
51 Scott Piercy
52 Alvaro Quiros
53 Greg Chalmers
54 Kyle Stanley
55 Bud Cauley
56 Kevin Na
57 Padraig Harrington
58 Mark Wilson
59 Branden Grace
60 Richie Ramsay
61 Anders Hansen
62 Marcel Siem
63 Jonathan Byrd
64 Ryan Moore
65 John Huh
66 Ben Crane
67 Vijay Singh
68 Kim Kyung-Tae
69 Alexander Noren
70 Marcus Fraser
71 Ben Curtis
72 Robert Karlsson
73 Bernd Wiesberger
74 Michael Thompson
75 Pablo Larazabal
76 Retief Goosen
77 Mark Leishman
78 Hiroyuki Fujita
79 Miguel Jimenez
80 Robert Rock
81 Johnson Wagner
82 Tim Clark
83 Rory Sabbatini
84 Jeff Overton
85 Ryo Ishikawa
86 Matteo Manassero
87 Noh Seung-Yul
88 Jeev Milkha Singh
89 Ryan Palmer
90 Ted Potter Jr.
91 George Coetzee
92 Thorbjorn Olesen
93 Y.E. Yang
94 D.A. Points
95 Spencer Levin
96 Charles Howell III
97 Toru Taniguchi
98 Joost Luiten
99 Gary Woodland
100 Brian Davis
---------------------
101 Chris Kirk
102 Charlie Wi
103 J.B. Holmes
...

good to see Adam Scott up to 5 - is that a career high for Adam?

Scott has been as high as number 3, when the us open organisers first did the 123. 456, 789, 10 11 12 groups in the first 2 rounds (torrey pines us open i think) scott was the 3 to woods 1 and mickelson's 2 in the 123 group.

Disappointing finishes in the end for Harrington and Singh, highlighting just how difficult it is to come back from two or three years of indifferent form. The top/podium results become harder to come by every event they play.

Sad to see Matteo and Ryo side by side, no doubt lower than they would have expected, but a commentary on their respective seasons.

Thanks pd, ironic that the Tour Championship points yield will be the lowest of the Play-Off series - looking forward to the Italian job.

Re Tour Championship OWGR Rating.

That is why I wish the PGAT would adopt the RtD model. 60 players (or is it 65)

G Mac seems to be clinging on to his top 20 with not too great a year. How come?

kwini, GPB - without going back into that debate, I agree, as it is now, the final Playoff event this week will be worth ~60/62 pts. which is absolutely ridiculous for a field of only 30! Making it a 60 player event like RtD would make it much more acceptable from many points of view...

barragan, as ralph mentioned, Scott went as high as #3 in the world back at the begining of 2007...

Sand, Gmac didn't have any wins this year, but certainly didn't have such a bad season. 6 top 10s of which 3 runner up positions and finished T12 or better in ALL the majors this year. He's actually even better positioned in points earned this year (at #15)...

cheers PD.... Seems like that last post was a heap of crap... Probably not for the first time

Early count for this week:

- Italian Op @ ~28 pts (up from 24 pts last year)

...and next week:

- Tour Champ @ ~62 pts (up from 54 last year)

Rory stays #1. Luke needs a solo 2nd or win to have a chance to move back to #2. Lee can't reach #3 even if he wins...

pd,
Tour Championship next week, but I presume your projections remain similar, if not exactly the same.

Still think it's a crying shame that the Italian Open hasn't attracted some more refugees from the PGA Tour - those on employment hiatus at this time of year seem to be preferring the web.com route, but surely Cabrera and Villegas, some Aussies, Saffers, or even Europeans like Freddie Jac, Owen or Davis could have been lured?

Regardless, it would be nice to see the Itlain job's status enhanced - anything to do with the autumn date I wonder?

Cheers kwini, next week of course, what was I thinking... But those predictions should be pretty similar.

I agree with the Italian Open, was expecting a bit more than this. September is a great time to go to Italy as a tourist at least...Even some of the top regular ET guys are giving it a miss. With the two weeks of break on ET after this until the Dunhill Links, there's no excuse really for any of the Euros not involved in the RC or Playoffs not to go to Italy this week...

Guarranteed, the top 22 OWGR after this week and before the Tour Championship, should look like this:

1 Rory McIlroy
2 Tiger Woods
3 Luke Donald
4 Lee Westwood
5 Adam Scott
6 Jason Dufner
7 Bubba Watson
8 Webb Simpson
9 Justin Rose
10 Steve Stricker
11 Louis Oosthuizen
12 Dustin Johnson
13 Keegan Bradley
14 Matt Kuchar
15 Phil Mickelson
16 Zach Johnson
17 Graeme McDowell
18 Brandt Snedeker
19 Sergio Garcia
20 Hunter Mahan
21 Nick Watney
22 Ernie Els
------------------------------
23 Peter Hanson
24 Ian Poulter
25 Bo Van Pelt
...

So Dufner, in his typical nonchalant style, will discretely move to a carreer best #6 without lifting (or waggling) a club...
Peter Hanson will be replaced at #23 by Martin Kaymer or by Franny Molinari, if any of these two will win in Italy...