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The curious case of the World number one golfer

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    #26
    The curious case of the World number one golfer

    I agree. He will probably retire with four/five tour-wins, possibly one major. I get the vibe that that would be ok with him. And that translates to his swing. Unlike Paul Casey: that guy’s going to retire a mutli-millionaire, with an Exhibition Swing that’ll be shown in instruction holograms for ever, and, yet, he'll still looks rictus-grin miserable.

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      #27
      The curious case of the World number one golfer

      Well, there have always been players with perfectly drilled, manufactured college swings, who won (relatively) sod all. I'm not about to feel too sorry for Casey, though - he's won his fair share so far.

      I've always preferred the guys like Lee Trevino, though (showing my age here) whose swing was once described (probably by himself) as like he was trying to kill a snake.

      The most perfect, natural golfer I've ever seen was Ben Crenshaw, who was also just such a perfect gentleman and scholar of the game it was impossible to pull against him. How he never won an Open Championship is almost impossible to contemplate. He did win two green jackets, but he really should have won as many majors as (and been a truer rival to) his contemporaries Watson and Seve.

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        #28
        The curious case of the World number one golfer

        We are also dancing around the Weetabix-hair-and-generous-breasts of Colin Montgomery. The best Scottish golfer since Morris (old and new).

        The most feared Ryder Cup opponent of all time - Faldo may have more points, Seve the bravado, Lyle the shot-making –but the US of A always wanted to play Monty. And yet no a major to his name.

        He also cuts a brilliant pundit on Sky’s coverage. Everyone talks about how Bubba Watson moves the ball, but I remember seeing Monty hit a three-wood (made of wood) off a tight-arse lie at the Scottish Open and this fuqer (the ball) moved about 80-yards from left-to-right before chatting up the hole. I played off a decent single-figure handicap at the time and had never seen anything like it.

        (As an aside: apart from Dufner, Robert Rock is my new favourite golfer: he looks like a ‘70s Sipowicz-esque detective and doesn’t wear a cap. What more do you want?)

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          #29
          The curious case of the World number one golfer

          Rory managed to take six shots from just over the green on a par-3 today, the first of which was chipping back across the green into a lake, and after dropping there, straight back into a bunker.

          Remarkably, he recovered from that to finish his round one under par, so maybe in that one hole he's finally got the recent demons out of his system.

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            #30
            The curious case of the World number one golfer

            Or ... maybe not. In the second round last night we were treated to the delightful spectacle of one of the world's most talented players trying to chip up from the bank of ditch, but hitting the bank and seeing the ball richochet back past him and plop into the water. If it had hit him on its way into the water he'd have incurred a further penalty shot, so had that most comical thing of having taken three 'shots' to end up further away from the hole than where he started.

            Tiger, meanwhile, looked almost, almost, like a decent player again yesterday ... 69 round a Muirfield Village course set up like a US Open one is no mean feat - only 3 players shot better yesterday, 2 of them former US Open champions (Furyk and Glover).

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              #31
              The curious case of the World number one golfer

              You might enjoy this article, Rogin.

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                #32
                The curious case of the World number one golfer

                Yes, that article sums up what a lot of people have been saying for some time - pretty much anyone in the field at a major at the moment has got every chance, it seems, which can be viewed as either a good or a bad thing. It's good if you view that as meaning that there are far more very good players than there ever used to be (which is undoubtedly true, just in terms of scoring if nothing else), but bad if your definition of "great" players are the ones who are able to rise to the top of their generation, and dominate the majors as well as the regular events, as at the moment it seems golf's waiting for its next great player. There have always been 'outsider' winners of majors, of course - even in the days of Nicklaus and Player, an Orville Moody or Charles Coody could pop up and win one, and Tom Watson lost successive playoffs to John Mahaffey and Fuzzy Zeoller when neither of them were big names - but the recent run of first-time major winners, and McIlroy aside relative outsiders at that, is quite unprecedented.

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                  #33
                  The curious case of the World number one golfer

                  So, it’s after 3am Greenwich, and the US Open is still going. Sheesh: Monday at work will be full of zzzzz. Thoughts? Great tournament without anything great happening (Els’s chip-in aside). The course looks wicked-fun to play – 107-yard par-three; driveable par-four – but also prison-queen-bee hard. Graeme – do you really think I sound like The Edge? – McDowell and Westwood looking good. Jim Furyk with his swashbuckling swing is probably favourite. Woods looks capable of a 65...or another 75. I’ll probably have to Likely Lads it tomorrow and catch it after work on Monday. Oh, and new golf-shoes look awful.

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                    #34
                    The curious case of the World number one golfer

                    It is a weird course.

                    With normal rough and pin placements, it is far from impossible if you can hit it straight.

                    With the USGA's sadistic pins and tees, however, it is a whole other story.

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                      #35
                      The curious case of the World number one golfer

                      ursus arctos wrote: It is a weird course.

                      With normal rough and pin placements, it is far from impossible if you can hit it straight.

                      With the USGA's sadistic pins and tees, however, it is a whole other story.
                      Agreed: there is one hole where a bush (out-of-bounds lurking just behind, natch) is a paltry ten-feet from the pin. You can get away with that if you're hitting a wedge in, but not a five-iron.

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                        #36
                        The curious case of the World number one golfer

                        There always used to be the thing of the "US Open" player - the player who had the solid game to conquer the worst the USGA could throw at them, but maybe not compete with the more flamboyant, risk-taking players who would dominate at Augusta, or at an Open. Hale Irwin was a US Open player, Curtis Strange another. Nick Faldo, you'd have thought, would certainly have won US Opens, and it's surely no coincidence that the two he narrowly lost out on were to Strange and Irwin. Half-forgotten players like Scott Simpson and Lee Janzen were US Open players too, and so too has been Jim Furyk. It would seem, and certainly if he wins again tonight, that G-Mac might be becoming this generation's.

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                          #37
                          The curious case of the World number one golfer

                          I expected Rogin to do a bit more with his screen time.

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                            #38
                            The curious case of the World number one golfer

                            You don't read a lot of my stuff on golf, do you, ursus? I'd have had this idiot shot by rifle fire before he got anywhere near the green. Him, and any other dickhead who shouts "you da man!" or "indahole!" at any point on the course.

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                              #39
                              The curious case of the World number one golfer

                              Rogin, it was a joke.

                              Which obviously didn't work.

                              I have a tremendous amount of respect for your golf knowledge and respect for the game.

                              Though I'm not sure what you have against saving birds in the rain forest.

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                                #40
                                The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                Aw, shucks. (Blushes).

                                Webb Simpson, then. Really shouldn't have been as much of a surprise winner as he was - he finished 2011 ranked 10th in the (2-year) world rankings, and 4th on 2011 points alone.

                                Quite a turnaround for the US next generation. Twelve months ago, the US didn't hold any of the majors, now if one them wins at Lytham (and GO's maxim is that the Open is more often than not won by an American no-one's ever heard of) they'll hold all 4, I think for the first time since Tiger had them all in 2001.

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                                  #41
                                  The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                  How many consecutive first time winners is that now?

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                                    #42
                                    The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                    That's nine in a row, now, since Phil Mickelson won the 2009 Masters (and he was preceded by 3 futher ones, Glover, Cink and Yang).

                                    In order, McDowell, Oosthuizen, Kaymer, Schwartzel, McIlroy, Clarke, Bradley, Watson (B) and Simpson (W). Two of the nine, to be fair, have been world number ones during that time (even if Martin Kaymer seems to be on his way to becoming the 'pointless' answer to the question "how many world number one golfers can you name?".

                                    The previous record was 2002-04, when it went Beem, Weir, Furyk, Curtis, Micheel, Mickelson (his first Masters) a sequence that was broken by Retief Goosen winning a second US Open.

                                    I'd say it's at least an evens bet that the sequence will continue, you've got a whole lot of good players teeing it up at Lytham yet to win one, not least the world number one. Westwood, Garcia, Poulter, Casey, Rose, Scott, Mahan, Kuchar, Dufner, Johnson, Ishikawa (who I'd love to win a major), Fowler. In fact the odds are probably in favour of those who haven't, against those who have.

                                    Watch out too for that South African lad who's launched his career with three wins on tour this year, Branden Grace, at the Open. I think he's got just the game for Lytham.

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                                      #43
                                      The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                      Tiger Woods wins the AT&T National, his third PGA tour win of the year, something no-one at all achieved last year, and only Jim Furyk managed in 2010. As a result, Tiger nudges back up to 4th in the rankings, but crucially, closes the gap on Luke Donald by an amount such that now, he will become world number one again should he win the Open. As would either McIlroy or Westwood, nos 2 and 3.

                                      I'm not certain, but I don't think it's ever been the case before that 4 current or former world number one golfers go to an Open Championship all vying for the number one position. Possibly in July 1991, when it was tight at the top, and Woosnam was holding the number one spot from Faldo, Norman and Seve. It's rather exciting, anyway.

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                                        #44
                                        The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                        So, update then, and this might well do it for 2012. The Open didn't after all do anything to change the top of the rankings, but the following few weeks have, with Rory McIlroy's PGA championship and tour wins (and the inability of his rivals to win the Tour Championship, which went to Brandt Snedeker) almost certainly meaning he will close out 2012 as world number one.

                                        Mathematically he could be overtaken by Tiger Woods or Luke Donald were either of them to win all three of the Dubai World Championship, the HSBC Shanghai Champions event and the Chevron World Challenge, but those are just about the only three events left on the schedule with the kind of ranking points required to close the gap to Rory, and I'm not sure either Woods or Donald are playing all three in any case. Furthermore, McIlroy himself looks as likely to win one of those as the other guys, the form he's been in, which would end any doubt.

                                        So Ireland will have its first ever end of year World Number One player; world golf has got one of the youngest of all time. Tiger Woods was also 23 when he first ended the year ranked number one (in 1998); at that point, he'd won one major. McIlroy, whisper it, has won two already ...

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                                          #45
                                          The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                          McIlroy will indeed close out 2012 as world number one.

                                          Indeed, he will finish the year with just about every accolade going; he'll finish the year as World Number one, will top the single season's rankings; will (just) win the McCormack award for most weeks spent as number one during the year (it'll be him 27, Donald 25 weeks in 2012), will win the PGA Tour Player of the Year Award (unless America's golfers take a truly perverse collective decision, that one's a vote), and will certainly win the European Tour's player of the year. Laddy's going to need a bigger mantelpiece.

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                                            #46
                                            The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                            Adam Scott, if he hangs onto the three-shot lead he's built for himself at Bay Hill tonight, will win this tournament and become the world number one apparent - although he won't go top tonight, the only way he won't top the rankings is if Tiger Woods wins one of the next two events before the Masters, and at the moment Tiger isn't planning to play either of them.

                                            Scott would become Australia's first world number one since Greg Norman in 1997.

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                                              #47
                                              The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                              Scott needed a top-16 finish at the Tournament Players' Championship, taking place in Sawgrass this weekend, to get that number one spot, but he's well shy of that at the moment. He's just got married to his long-time girlfriend, so he's probably been practising other things than his putting.

                                              With Woods indisposed and Scott struggling for form, the world number one spot could be snuck away from both by Henrik Stenson, if he finishes in the top 6 on Sunday night - he's currently three shots back from that, so it's within his grasp. As remarkable as Stenson going top, could be how high 20-year-old Jordan Spieth will go if he wins the TPC - he's second after two rounds - by my calculation he could rise as high as third, depending on Stenson's finish.

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                                                #48
                                                The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                                Adam Scott takes over the number one spot despite not playing last week, as Woods' points total declines by just enough to dip under the Aussie's. It means that after there being only two different world number ones in the whole of the 2000s (Woods and Vijay Singh) there have now been six in this decade (Woods, Westwood, Kaymer, Donald, McIlroy and now Scott). And with Henrik Stenson about a fourth-place finish at a Tour event behind Scott, there could be a seventh as early as next weekend, which could make Scott the second player (after Tom Lehman) to have been world number one for one week.

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                                                  #49
                                                  The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                                  Just wanted to say thanks for all these updates Rogin - even if it does look like you've been talking to yourself here for two years, they're much appreciated as your knowledge (and pleasing stattiness) is always enlightening. For me, the last handful of years where the top spot has been in such a state of (relatively) frenzied turnover have been so much more interesting than the previopus endless Tiger-dominated years have been, or indeed the recent spell where he'd started to go the same way again ever since McIlroy went off the boil. Same goes for snooker, since the ranking reorganisation, although it remains to be seen how the new re-reorganisation will affect things there.

                                                  Did Lehman ever get that Number One spot back, out of interest, or was he a one-week wonder for all time? I seem to recall the latter has only ever happened once in the men's tennis rankings, which have similarly been dominated by a handful of players for years at a time, interspersed by a few short reigns and the odd interlude where you get this same state of flux as right now in golf, where several players can swap the position in a matter of a month or two for maybe a handful of weeks each - and I think the only player who has even risen out of the pack for just a single week is Pat Rafter, back in about 1999.

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                                                    #50
                                                    The curious case of the World number one golfer

                                                    Thanks very much for the thanks. I bask in the hope that I attract little comment here, as perhaps none is possibly required.

                                                    Yes, Lehman was indeed a one-week wonder - he just got up to number one in April 1997 after a high finish in a tour event about a year after he'd actually won some stuff (in his case the Open, on the back of a 2nd place at the US Open). The incumbent number one (Greg Norman) went back ahead the very next week, as some of Lehman's 1996 points lost value. Norman (and Lehman) were then both soon overtaken by first Ernie Els and then Tiger Woods.

                                                    Phil Mickelson, despite five majors now (and six runners-up spots at the US Open) has yet to be ranked number one. His points average as world number two has often been higher than Scott's is now, as number one ...

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