The curious case of the World number one golfer
Nothing strange about this case. Woods arrested for drink driving.
Nothing strange about this case. Woods arrested for drink driving.
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The curious case of the World number one golfer
Not looking at all the worse for wear in his mugshot thereComment
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The curious case of the World number one golfer
Have people learned nothing from Tom DeLay?Comment
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The curious case of the World number one golfer
Prescription drugs is his defence claim. He was driving at 3am though so where was he driving from and to?
However this is also going to raise questions about whether a white golfer would have gotten the full arrest and mugshot treatment.Comment
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The curious case of the World number one golfer
Breathalyzer results support Woods' story
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The curious case of the World number one golfer
High of the Tiger.
No. Wrong drug.Comment
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The curious case of the World number one golfer
Why is he still so famous?Comment
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Justin Rose has just gone to world number one after his third high profile second place finish of the season. It means the last two years at the top of the men's rankings have gone Dustin, Justin, Dustin and Justin.Comment
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Almost equally cherishably, it means the last five new number ones have been Jordan, Jason, Dustin, Justin and Justin.
I think that makes Messrs Thomas and Rose the first two No.1 players to share a forename since Nicks Faldo and Price, and the first consecutive new No.1s to do so. Obviously the one hasn't displaced the other, though – I wonder if Price and Faldo ever did that?
Anyway, terrific news, I'd missed this until now. Rose really deserves this, and to do it 20 years into his career is just reward for some tremendous high-level consistency in recent times.Comment
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Brooks Koepka has risen to world number one, after adding the CJ Cup in Korea to his two major wins in 2018. It means that after Tiger Woods holding the number one position for almost all of the 2000s, there have now been twelve different players reach number one in the 2010s - and four in the last five months. There's a WGC event in Shanghai this week that could see the lead change hands again...Comment
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Justin Rose is going to finish 2018 as world number one just by turning up in Jakarta this week. It's not a great way for the season to finish to be honest - Rose is a lovely guy and has been very consistent but Brooks Koepka's won three of the last seven majors ffs while Rose has won one event of any significance.Comment
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Rose will have to get injured or disqualified tomorrow not to get to number one - he's fourth in Jakarta and only needs twelfth. I wonder if a player getting number one on a string of second to fifth place finishes in a year when another player has won two majors will make the ranking committee have another look at how they rate the majors. If Koepka's major wins were worth 160 points, say, not 100, there'd be no question about his being number one. As the strongest non-majors (TPC, WGC events, FedEx Cup playoffs) are worth 80 to the winners, raising the majors to double that seems more in keeping.Comment
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Well, Rogin will be relieved.
Personally, I don't mind a world number one who is consistent across the year rather than one who is mercurial in majors but just average the rest of the year. You should be intimidated by a world number one. If you have a player who shows up at a second tier event and you expect them to finish 60th, I'm not sure that's the right level of intimidation.
Also with the various golf promotion authorities describing all their events as "The fifth major", they're not going to want to give more ranking points to the actual majors, so I doubt it'll change in the near future.Comment
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Dustin Johnson going out early at the World Matchplay championship means either Justin Rose or Rory McIlroy can become golf's latest world number one should they win the whole thing. McIlroy doing so would make him the fifth different player to hold the top spot in twelve months, after Johnson, Thomas, Rose and Koepka (and the lead between those four has changed almost weekly).Comment
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Neither made it to the semis in the end. Nor did Sergio Garcia, who made an arse of himself again during his match with Matt Kuchar by missing a short putt to win a hole, and angrily tapping the return putt away assuming Kooch had conceded it. He hadn't. Hole lost and match finished in bitterness.Comment
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I saw that on the telly. What a plonker. If there's one thing you know not to do in matchplay, it's tap your putt like that. The weirdest thing was that apparently on the next hole Sergio told Kuchar that he should concede that hole to make it fair.Comment
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Garcia's take appears to be the consensus view. Kuchar hadn't conceded, but given how short the putt was he would surely have done so if Garcia had waited and so (at least this is how the take goes) should have done it post-hoc whilst having a quite word with Sergio to say he was doing it as a favour and Sergio would be strongly advised to wait to be given the nod from now on. Sort of like a Mankad-warning in cricket.
But, given past behaviour, Garcia should have known that Kuchar eschews the ethical path and sticks to the letter of the rules. And Garcia shouldn't be such a petulant prat, either.Comment
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For the first time since I started this thread in 2010, the men’s world number one at the end of the year is the same as last year’s. Brooks Koepka joins a fairly short list in that respect, all-time since 1960 it includes Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Seve Ballesteros, Greg Norman, Nick Faldo, Tiger Woods and now Koepka. Rory McIlroy ended 2012 and 2014 as number one but not 2013.Comment
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Rory McIlroy returned to world number on this week, as his four big wins in 2019 worked their way through the time-weighted algorithm that drives the ranking. He may only hold it for one week though - he, Koepka and Jon Rahm are all playing at Tiger Woods' Genesis Invitational this weekend, and a win would take each to top spot. I actually think that Jon Rahm's going to do that.Comment
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After putting them on ice for 12 weeks, the ranking committee have said they will re-set the rankings after this week's PGA tour return, the Someone Someone Bank Invitational in Texas. Most of the world's top 100 have rocked up for it, so it's going to attract a lot of ranking points.
If they do it according to the existing system, everyone will see all the points they were holding for March 12th -June 13th 2018 (2 years old) slide off their total, but also see a corresponding drop of 6 or 7 events from their total events entered divisor. That, coupled with the big points on offer this week, could result in some wild swings from the March 2020 ones. I think Jon Rahm bounces straight to world number one if he wins this weekend.Comment
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As one who enjoys an occasional* 1 quid each-way bet, this week's Charles Schwab Invitational, with such a strong field, has been an eye-opener.
I eventually went for Rose (40-1), Thomas (12-1), Schauffele (28-1) and Berger (66-1) at prices not normally seen for these players outside majors and after one day's play they are all contending.
It'll all come tumbling down by Sunday, no doubt.
* Oh OK, nearly every week.Comment
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The bookies must have been pulling odds out of a hat. I didn't think of having a bet. Who knows what a player's going to do after 3 months off? Brooks Koepka turned up sporting a 'tache for fuck's sake.Comment
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I looked at how players tend to do at the Sony Open in Hawaii after the Christmas break. Not that logic ever really applies.
Rickie Fowler and Brooks Koepka have turned up as Thomson and Thompson from the Tintin books.Comment
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Just accidentally caught some PGA Tour highlights on ITV4, the Heritage, which is normally played after the Masters.
Some really good golf, and a good win for Webb Simpson, but there were loads of players in with a chance until the last few holes.
Quite a few new names for me, including Tyrell Hatton, who sounds (and looks) like an identikit American surname-as-first-name golf pro douchebag, but is actually from High Wycombe, a young Chilean called Joaquin Niemann, and a young Mexican, Abraham Ancer, who is a good candidate to replace Ricky Fowler as my favourite golfer now Fowler has that horrific moustache.Comment
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Ancer is a greens in regulation machine. He hits something daft like 16/18 on average. When things get back to normal back him for the US Open every year for years to come.Comment
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