Lee Westwood To OWGR Algorithms: You Like Me, You Really, Really Like Me!

Lee Westwood dutifully gave the British press corps plenty of dramatic quotes during a conference call to celebrate his rise to No. 1 as he rests his ailing calf. Tom Pilcher reports:

"To be able to sit down and say there's nobody better right now, I think it has to be the highlight," the 37-year-old said.

"When you're growing up and people say 'What do you want to achieve?', you say 'I want to be the best in the world'.

"It's a planet isn't it? I'm the best on the planet."

The best on the planet without a major. And for another oy vey moment...

Westwood thanked Ryder Cup team mate Kaymer for contacting him with his congratulations shortly after the German finished his final round.

"Martin Kaymer did send me a text, which was very nice of him. He sent it pretty much as soon as he had finished. That meant a lot."

Comments

[pt]

you're exactly right G -#1 with zero majors...wtf........

[Boyer]

Um, yes... he should really have to "validate the skin" somehow before wearing the crown.

[Longy]

You can't be No 1 without winning a major. It's a return to the Norman era of late 80's early 90's when he was No 1 but without major winning credibility.

[Wisconsin Reader]

Sure . . . He is the #1 player in the world . . . And the BCS identifies the #1 collegiate football team . . . And the NFL pre season "expert analysts" chose the Cowboys . . . What a crock . . . The only really valid "pickers and odds makers" live in Las Vegas. . .

[BenSeattle]

Comedically ridiculous. This farce does, however, point out the heretofore unexplained importance of the Memphis tournament, an event that apparently carries vast weight among the OWGR.... also known as IMG's personal, easliy-manipulated abacus. How Westwood can look in the mirror and not laugh at the fact that he's "number one on the Entire Planet" while Kaymer's multiple victories and a major won't be factored in for -- what -- another 13 months, is completely beyond me. Isn't this joke pretty much the same as Rush Limbaugh finally admitting to the rest of us that he's The Smartest Man in the World?

[d.b.cooper]

@Longy,

While Norman did not have many majors in his era, he did have some and his #1 reign was legitimate.

Norman was a FORCE and was heads and shoulders over the likes of Lee Westwood. Not even close.

Westwood's #1 status is a pathetic joke.

[Ian C]

Looks like there a lot of bitter Phil fans who can't accept their man bottled numerous opportunties to become number 1 on the planet.

[Jock]

I cant understand why you are all going on about Majors, when they have f*ck all to do with WORLD golf !

[act38]

Should we also strike David Duval, Fred Couple and Ian Woosnam from the annals of history since they hadn't won a major when they first got to No. 1? Or maybe just Ian Woosnam, because he's not American?

[chico]

Its not fair to give Westwood all this abuse for reaching the top of the rankings-he didnt write the rules!
And these are the regulations that have been in place for a fair time.
Perhaps we should have a rule making it illegal to be world no.1 unless you are American-after all that happens in quite a few of the sports you play!(ok tongue is firmly in cheek there!)
The rankings are far from perfect and I would give more benefit to major wins but the guy is number 1 using the recognised system in place at the time and you cant blame him or his family or his fans for being more than a little bit proud today.

[Al]

Westwood is clearly number 1 based on performance over past 2 years.

Model of consistency in majors and won European money list with great finish last year.

Also thoroughly likeable and has respect of peers. You won't hear Kaymer or Woods saying that is undeserved.

Obviously he'll need to win a major for long-term legacy - but it also took Phil a while to do that as well.

[Scott]

I kind of imagine the Westwood quote as "it's a planet innit?" like he was being interviewed by Jeremy Kyle in front of an audience of Vicky Pollards.

[Phil]

I think Lee is deserving, consistent performance for the last two years. But it's also hard to disagree with Kaymer being the hottest on the "planet" right now, maybe they need two sets of rankings (i know we already have one bad ranking, two won't make it better), but maybe a long term and short term ranking? It's hard to quantify, for the last dozen years the best has been pretty straight forward argument, but now? Does the best mean you would pick Westwood over Kaymer, or anyone else, in a head to head match, probably not, but also winning Order of Merits, and regular high finishes in majors has to count for something.

[digsouth]

I thought Lee Majors was an actor.

[Al]

i have no interest on who is "hot" -- that changes like the wind in golf - as demonstrated by press coverage week to week -- and a lot depends on field quality and some players don't play for a month

sure it's kaymer right now -- but then he played relatively badly this week - so does he drop down?

over course of year - it was phil, dustin, rory, kuchar and any number of players

world number 1 should be consistently best over 1 or 2 year period

i personally like golf week sagarin ranking which is based on 1-year head-to-head -- and westwood is top of that as well (then stricker, kuchar, phil, woods, furyk)

[jay]

#1 ranking due to tiger's points being divided by 40 events as opposed to the 33 or so he actually played

[Tim in Hoylake]

Yeah, Jay, and if they divided by 50 events, like they should; heck, I even work one week out of 2; then Mr. Woods would have been #2 back in April.

[rob]

Westwood at # 1...?
Methinks it will be the shortest reign since Leon Spinks.