OWGR - Week #23

Kyle Stanley proving that praying does work after all... if you're smart enough!

Congratulations to Harris English for his 1st win on the PGA Tour, recompensed with a big pile of cash and a big jump in the rankings to #84, the best of his career. Scott Stallings is certainly going through a purple patch, his last three finishes being T4, T4 and now a T2, not to mention that US Open qualification somewhere inbetween...No surprize then to see him this week jumping well inside the top 100, to a career best #77. Mickelson's finish in Memphis will have many bookies slashing his odds for a win next week, even though this runner up finish doesn't lift him any higher in the rankings (still at #10). Other notable movers from Memphis include Billy Horschel, moving back just inside the top 50, and Ryan Palmer moving up to #76. And as I said, congrats also to Kyle Stanley, not so much for his effective praying, but for making the smart choice of not playing this week. If he would've played in Memphis and failed to score, he would be now at #61!

And a great win for Joost Luiten in Austria, well overdue, and bringing him back inside the top 100, at #96. I'd love to see him now moving up to the next level and winning a bigger one, he's well capable if he stays healthy. Great return to form for Thomas Bjorn (and for Billy Foster I may add), runner up in Vienna, and enjoying a much needed boost in the rankings, moving up to #73. Heartbreak for the local favorite Wiesberger failing to make the necessary quota for a top 60, but he'll have only himself to blame for that... he may not get a better chance than this very soon...

Well done also to the Frenchman Francois Calmels, who out of nowhere, manages to pull his second win on the Challenge tour in just 6 weeks, in the Czech Rep., and he should move somewhere inside the top 300 after that...
And finally, congrats also to Stephen Gangluff from the US of A, winner of the first event of ther season on the Canadian Tour. He will move somewhere around #775...

Bring on the US Open!!

The OWGR table after week #23 should look as follows:

1 Tiger Woods
2 Rory McIlroy
3 Adam Scott
4 Matt Kuchar
5 Justin Rose
6 Luke Donald
7 Brandt Snedeker
8 Graeme McDowell
9 Louis Oosthuizen
10 Phil Mickelson
------------------------------
11 Lee Westwood
12 Keegan Bradley
13 Steve Stricker
14 Charl Schwartzel
15 Sergio Garcia
16 Bubba Watson
17 Ian Poulter
18 Webb Simpson
19 Dustin Johnson
20 Jason Dufner
21 Ernie Els
22 Hunter Mahan
23 Peter Hanson
24 Nick Watney
25 Matteo Manassero
26 Jason Day
27 Jim Furyk
28 Bo Van Pelt
29 Bill Haas
30 Zach Johnson
31 Branden Grace
32 Rickie Fowler
33 Henrik Stenson
34 Martin Kaymer
35 Thorbjorn Olesen
36 Kevin Streelman
37 Scott Piercy
38 Francesco Molinari
39 Jamie Donaldson
40 Carl Pettersson
41 Gonzalo Fdez-C.
42 Robert Garrigus
43 Paul Lawrie
44 David Lynn
45 Michael Thompson
46 Nicolas Colsaerts
47 Ryan Moore
48 Russell Henley
49 D.A. Points
50 Billy Horschel
----------------------------
51 Tim Clark
52 Thongchai Jaidee
53 Richard Sterne
54 Fredrik Jacobson
55 Boo Weekly
56 Martin Laird
57 George Coetzee
58 Marcel Siem
59 Angel Cabrera
60 Kyle Stanley
---------------------------
61 Mark Leishman
62 Bernd Wiesberger
63 Alexander Noren
64 Hideki Matsuyama
65 Chris Wood
66 Mikko Ilonen
67 Jimmy Walker
68 Charles Howell III
69 John Senden
70 Padraig Harrington
71 Luke Guthrie
72 Hiroyuki Fujita
73 Thomas Bjorn
74 Marcus Fraser
75 Brendan de Jonge
76 Ryan Palmer
77 Scott Stallings
78 Geoff Ogilvy
79 Miguel A. Jimenez
80 Stephen Gallacher
81 Bae Sang-Moon
82 Brett Rumford
83 Shane Lowry
84 Harris English
85 Jaco Van Zyl
86 Chris Kirk
87 Kiradech Aphibarnrat
88 Richie Ramsay
89 Greg Chalmers
90 John Merrick
91 Scott Jamieson
92 Charlie Beljan
93 Anders Hansen
94 David Lingmerth
95 John Huh
96 Joost Luiten
97 Jonas Blixt
98 K.J. Choi
99 Thomas Aiken
100 Darren Fichardt
---------------------------------
101 Rafael Cabrerra-Bello
102 Kim Hyung Sung
103 Kevin Chappell
...

Thanks PD, as always for the weekly wrap up.

Hard to believe that a second place finish did nothing for Phil Mickelson in the rankings but there was a pretty big gap between him and Oosty going into this past week.

I am reading a lot of anti-Phil propaganda but I think he has earned more gross OWGR points this year than every player except Tiger, Adam, Kuchar, Brandt, GMac and Kevin Streelman.

More than Rory, Luke, Westy, and Rose.

And I think he clinched a Freddie Couples invite to Muirfield Village later this year. This will his 19th RC/PC team and 18th consecutive time he has earned it on merit, w/o need of a Captains pick.

For some that has been marred with inconsistency in his career, he has been amazingly consistent when you look at the big picture.

Great stuff pd.
Doesn't it seem that, among the Top 50 at least, the Europeans have been marking time for the past two months, Matteo excepted. Hopefully this week will see some changes in that regard - a 7 or 8 week spell where we'd expect the Europeans to play better.

(I'm beginning to feel GPB's need for some top thirty turbulence . . . . . !)

GPB wrote:And I think he clinched a Freddie Couples invite to Muirfield Village later this year. This will his 19th RC/PC team and 18th consecutive time he has earned it on merit, w/o need of a Captains pick.

For some that has been marred with inconsistency in his career, he has been amazingly consistent when you look at the big picture.

Yep... Phil's in the RC no matter what. But amazing thing about Phil... yes he's wildly inconsistent... but that inconsistency is WITHIN a year... not necessarily year to year. What is it... 19 out of his 21 years as a pro with at least one win? Something like 13 of those years multiple win seasons? Pretty amazing in this day and age if you ask me.

And still... seems when he's good... he's still VERY good. He's had 4 what I would call very good performances this year already. Phoenix is obvious... but this past week and his 3rd place at Wells Fargo were very good in my book too. And despite your position on WGC's being so lousy and all... I actually think Phil's T3 in the WGC Cadillac was very good as well.. :-)

kwinigolfer wrote:(I'm beginning to feel GPB's need for some top thirty turbulence . . . . . !)

No Kidding...

Seems like almost every time a top-30 player gets himself at risk... he does something just enough to hang in there.. Poster Child for that phenomena this year seems to be GPB's favorite = Zach Johnson... :-)

Here are some owgr projections for the US Open:

- Rory could move within 1.42pts of Tiger with a win if Tiger doesn't score, or could drop within 6 pts if...viceversa!
- Scott can move to #2 with a win if Rory finishes worse than solo 11th
- Anyone from #8 (GMac) up could reach #3 with a win
- Anyone from #15 (Sergio) up could reach #4 with a win
- Anyone from #29 (Haas) up could get into the top 10 with a win

And for Harri's fans, he could move as high as #20 with a win...

princedracula wrote:Here are some owgr projections for the US Open:

- Rory could move within 1.42pts of Tiger with a win if Tiger doesn't score, or could drop within 6 pts if...viceversa!
- Scott can move to #2 with a win if Rory finishes worse than solo 11th
- Anyone from #8 (GMac) up could reach #3 with a win
- Anyone from #15 (Sergio) up could reach #4 with a win
- Anyone from #29 (Haas) up could get into the top 10 with a win

And for Harri's fans, he could move as high as #20 with a win...

We can only hope haha!