A December Tradition Too Much Like Every Other Year: The Top 50 OWGR Game

There are many clubs in golf worth fighting to join, but none as lucrative as Official World Golf Ranking End Of Season Top 50 National CC.

If it were a piece of architecture I'm fairly certainly it'd be a Tom Fazio course heralded as Golf Digest's Best New Private and, six years later, Golf Digest's Best New Remodel.

Here we are again watching players and their agents crunching the OWGR numbers to determine if  how they get finish in the world top 50 and its $350k or so of guaranteed money and opportunities for easy ranking points. Oh, and there's a Masters berth on the line, too.

What people will do to join this elite club!

We had that sensitive flower Brandt Snedeker trekking to Indonesia last week, only to have his top 50 bid succumb to heat exhaustion during second round play.

This week world No. 51 Kiradech Aphibarnrat withdrew from the event I know you have all had circled on your calendar, the Boonchu Ruangkit Championship, where his lower back sent signals to Kiradech's brain suggesting he'd be better off not playing.

Golfweek's Kevin Casey takes it from there:

Aphibarnrat is currently No. 51 in the Official World Golf Ranking and would finish No. 49 by year’s end by not playing in anymore 2017 events – with the top 50 in the world at the end of 2017 earning Masters invites for the following April.

What would happen, though, if Aphibarnrat did play this week, in the final tournament offering OWGR points in 2017?

Well, he would need a top-12 finish … or else he would fall out of the top 50 and lose his guaranteed Masters spot!

This annual manipulation of the algorithms could easily come to an end if the golf world stopped exempting the world top 50 at season's end. Such a move, however, makes way too much sense.

Comments

[OWGR Fan]

Non story really. There is another Top 50 cutoff for the OWGR rankings for The Masters in late March.

Pretty harsh take on Snedeker. He just started playing again after being out injured for months. You might want to read up on his injury that caused him to miss the time on tour, what his options were and his diet change. So now a guy that flies halfway around the world in an honest attempt to actually qualify for the top 50 on merit when he didn't have to, came down with heat exhaustion, and is a "flower" and subjected to ridicule? Yeah he is such a flower. At least he attempted to qualify. Unlike many others in the sport never do for certain majors.

Guessing you have never had heat exhaustion Geoff. I have. It's miserable. Uncalled for snark.

[OWGR Fan]

BTW when Snedeker withdrew in the second round he had birdied his couple of holes or 3 of his last 4 to get inside the cut number.

[Hawkeye]

We could also decide to not give a toss whether Kiradech Apibarnrat plays in the Boonchcu Ruangkit Championship or not. Rankings will always be used to determine tournament fields (how else?) and there will always be a cut-off point somewhere, so yeah, a non-story and uncalled-for snark regarding Snedeker.

[Meefer]

If Sneds wasn’t used to the temps around here, let me tell you, it was hot and humid. Famed hot and humid.

[BDF]

Do away with the 31 Dec cutoff, it means nothing. The points are updated weekly, the only reason I can see for this arbitrary date would be to set a schedule for the top jet-setters. A month should be enough, shouldn't it?

[Punxsutawney Figjam III]

OK I'm confused. Is Sneds a delicate flower, or a liberal snowflake? I'm not up with the jive

PF3

[AkronGolfMan]

Is there anyone in the world - maybe even Happy Barn Rat himself - who believes he is really a top 50 player?

[jimbo]

So what. these men are professional golfers. They play golf for money to make their living. It is their business. They, like any investor, businessman / woman, etc, are trying to maximize their ROI during the window (their career) that is open to them. To act otherwise than Kiradech et al should scratch your head more than this article.

[Jimothy]

A little bit harsh on Aphibarnrat, too. He's carrying a fairly painful back injury, as was clear to everyone who watched last week's final round from Indonesia.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

It's rarely unanimous here, but it's clear this time Geoff you've driven one well OB.

[Geoff]

Apparently you guys have not noticed Snedeker's track record on WD's and injuries? He's more than entitled and it's terrible when the body lets you down, but this is life in the top 50 club.

[OB]

Sneds gets a free pass usually because he's a nice guy but his injury record and WD rate is abnormal.

[North Texas Golfer]

Re: Snedeker's track record for WD's

Just what is considered an abnormal rate of WD's?

Sneds turned pro in 2004, and through the 2017 PGA Tour season, he had withdrawn 3 times.

[North Texas Golfer]

To add to my above post:

Snedeker has 5 career W/D across all professional tours from 2004-Present covering 362 events.

[Carl Peterson]

Dudley Hart has 37 WDs (and 5 DQs) in 483 evemts -- that's impressive.

By my count[*], Snedeker is 134th in WD-rate at 1.01% .

I count 12 players with 0 WDs (Tom Pernice, Jr playing the most events, 588, in this category).

[*] My count is limited to players who have played 250 or more events as a professional and I limited my search to events played in 1980 or later and also to events that are official on the PGA Tour.

[wiki]

damn carl

[Buffett]

Trump has said that he doesn’t like people who are captured. Is there an analogy here such that he will never confer on Sneds the high honour of inviting Sneds to play with him?