The fate of golf would seem to lie in the hands of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and the United States Golf Association. Can we expect that they will protect and reverence the spirit of golf?
MAX BEHR
Nothing too earth shattering in Golf Magazine's best new courses list but I feel like we have to soak these things up with the unlikelihood of "Best New" lists in the coming years. Selfishly, I was glad to see the Prairie Club courses both making the top 10 as described by Joe Passov.
Even before his opening round 65 at the Chevron World Challenge, there was quite a bit of Twitter outrage at the possibility Tiger could win his event and retake the top spot in the official world golf ranking. And I don't understand it.
There have been plenty of posts about the silliness of an 18-player silly season event counting in the world ranking chase. Yet how it impacts the top spot is essentially meaningless compared to the impact on who gets in the following year's events. As has been well documented this week, Graeme McDowell benefited from Tiger's accident last year by getting in the Chevron and finishing second, which earned him valuable points and a spot in the U.S. Open. More power to McDowell for taking advantage of the situation.
It seems the outrage over Tiger reclaiming the top spot should instead be directed at a system that lets him go winless over a season and still be in position to reclaim the No. 1 ranking.
Jason Sobel on the HSBC results and Westwood solidifying his spot at the top:
For now, though, all accolades and celebration should be heaped upon Westwood, who emerged from his first week atop the world ranking by putting greater distance between himself and the competition. That he failed to triumph at the HSBC should only serve as a symbol for his career: He might not always be good enough to win, but he is indeed good enough to be the best.
Sure, it sounds like a bizarre conundrum, but in a week that began with the world's best players brandishing swords in one another's company, bizarre might very well now be the norm anyway.
The SI guys weren't so kind.
Morfit: It is a bit odd that Westwood is winning so infrequently. On the other hand, he's played golf pretty infrequently, so maybe finishing second this week isn't so bad. I'm a lot more worried about a few other players who got a lot of publicity coming into the week.
Shipnuck: I'm way past the point of getting excited about Lee Westwood racking up another lucrative top-5 finish. To paraphrase "Glengarry Glen Ross," he needs to put down the coffee. Coffee is for closers.
Hack: Second place, a set of steak knives.
Shipnuck: Third place, you're fired. That means you, Luke Donald.
James Corrigan Doug Ferguson with the spellbinding, tense and frankly, emotional moment when the former No. 1 encountered the new No. 1 in China.
“Westy... Billy,” Woods said to the new No 1 and his caddie, Billy Foster. Woods never stopped walking. “Tiger,” Westwood responded, turning his head briefly before settling over his next shot.
Can't you just feel the tension?
The European Tour's statistics expert Ian Barker defended the World Ranking after Butch Harmon criticized the elevation of Lee Westwood to the top spot.
"If we just prepared it on the points won so far this year Woods would not be in the top 50 and Martin Kaymer would be comfortably the world number one," Barker, the European Tour's director of information services, told Reuters.
"Anyway, Butch may well have his wish on Sunday because Martin will go to number one if he comes second in Valderrama."
With only 24 courses opening this year and even fewer on the horizon, Golf Digest's Ron Whitten offers a summary of the best stuff he saw in 2010. Included was Gil Hanse's Castle Stuart and a nice mention of our H-O-R-S-E course at Prairie Club.
The maraschino cherry on this double dip is the 10-hole Horse Course, perched on the rim of the Snake River, next to a 38-room lodge. Laid out by the ubiquitous Gil Hanse, it's a short course meant to be played like H-O-R-S-E in basketball, with the winner of the previous hole choosing the shot and lie for the next. Owner/co-founder Paul Schock has already commissioned Hanse and Geoff Shackelford to design another full 18 for his resort.
Other categories from Whitten: LIGHTNING ROD OF THE YEAR, GOLF HOLE OF THE YEAR, ARCHITECT OF THE YEAR, OVERSEAS DESTINATION OF THE YEAR, EXTREME MAKEOVERS, OTHERS THAT CAUGHT MY FANCY.
Besides being really, really nice to panelists?
Golfweek's Brad Klein answers the question "How do I get my course nationally rated?"
4.) No signature holes
A round of golf is about being in a distinct place. The more special the locale and how it’s showcased during a round, the better a golfer will feel about the place. The Patriot (No. 4) wends through four distinct Midwest landforms. Chicago Highlands (No. 11) relies upon a sharp juxtaposition of open space and urban/suburban sprawl. Ballyhack (No. 15) is simply a walk on the wild side.
Beyond good conditioning and design flexibility, the secret to ratings success is having a course that’s not frilly or oversold and that conveys its own character quietly.
Get that Donald?
That's Tiger sounding the least beat concerned about losing the No. 1 world ranking. It helps when you've won 14 majors.
“As far as the world ranking is concerned, yes, I’m not ranked No. 1 in the world,” Woods said Monday. “In order to do that you have to win and I didn’t win this year.”
Though I'm not sure this has proven to be accurate, but we'll chalk it up to Tiger sticking to diplomacy:
“As far as the emotions go, it is what it is,” Woods said. “To become No. 1 you have to win and win a lot to maintain it. That’s the way it goes.”
Lee Westwood won once this year at Memphis. Martin Kaymer has won four times, including a major.
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."
Who knew there were enough courses for a list? Actually, forty may be the entire list of new courses which looks hefty considering next year's will be a much shorter list.
What struck me more than a couple of startling slights was the sheer comedic value of some of the course names. And I'm not referring to the ones named after their developers. In the interest of kindness, I won't name names.
Lawrence Donegan explains why Martin Kaymer hasn't moved to No. 1.
Kaymer has now won the last three tournaments in which he has played, a run of success that started at the US PGA Championship in August. Throw in Europe's dramatic Ryder Cup victory at Celtic Manor last weekend, to which he contributed 2½ points, and no wonder there are some people who would argue that "to hell with what the world rankings say, the German is the best player in the world right now".
James Corrigan on the chances of Kaymer vaulting to the top spot, as well as how Tiger could retain the No. 1 position by simply teeing it up somewhere.
Kaymer is not playing in this week's Portugal Masters but will attempt a four-timer in Spain next week. That would tee him up nicely for his own shot at becoming No 1 at the WGC HSBC Champions in Shanghai. He may even find Westwood waiting there to defend his new status. The Englishman confirmed he would be pulling out of Portugal and, because of the vagaries of the ranking system, that ensures that in three weeks' time he will be toppling Woods off the perch he has held for more than five years.
"I'm not allowing myself to think about it until it happens," Westwood said. "But yes, it is something I've always dreamed of."
The only way it will not happen is if Woods decides to play in the next three weeks, which is on the extremely doubtful side of unlikely. If, and when, he doesn't, it will leave Britain to boast the world's top-rated player for the first time since Nick Faldo in 1994. It may not be achieved in the manner in which Westwood wanted but, as he said: "I'll take it anyway."
Oh but it's not all bad news, because it is, after all, the Official World Golf Ranking where sense was long ago abandoned.
Needing a first or second-place finish to dethrone Tiger Woods as world number one, Westwood is outside the top 30 at halfway.
But if he misses his defence of the Portugal Masters next week, he will overtake Woods on the rankings - calculated over a two-year period - at the end of this month.
Sunday, December 12, 2010 at 08:37 PM