“Tiger Woods will finally lose his world number one ranking on Monday – to Lee Westwood whose ascent to golf’s No. 1 ranking will be realised without winning, or indeed playing, for some time”: 31 October 2010.
“Tiger Woods will finally lose his world number one ranking on Monday – to Adam Scott whose ascent to golf’s No. 1 ranking will be realised without winning, or indeed playing, for some time”: 18 May 2014.
How the Ranking System works:
Official events from the leading professional tours are eligible for Ranking Points. These are awarded according to the tournament’s strength of field and the players finishing position. A player coming, say, fifth on a PGA Tour event featuring most of the world’s top-ranked players, is going to score more Ranking Points than a player finishing fifth in an Asian or Australasian Tour event. In short, if a player wins an event that includes Tiger (now Adam) and his peers, he will score ranking points mak mak.
World Ranking Points for each player are accumulated over a two year rolling period, with points awarded for each event maintained for a 13-week period, thus placing additional emphasis on recent performances.
Ranking Points are then reduced in equal decrements for the remaining 91 weeks of the two-year ranking period. Each player is then ranked according to their average points per tournament, which is determined by dividing his total number of points by the tournaments played over that two-year period.
With Adam Scott not having performed well of late, and Tiger not able to play at all, Adam’s ascension has a lot to do with Tiger losing ranking points as they fall out of the two-year rolling period.
Woods has been top of the rankings for a record 683 weeks.
Scott becomes the 17th player to reach world number one since its inception in 1986, and second Australian behind former No. 1 Greg Norman who ruled for 331 weeks.
When asked his feelings about this new status, Scott put the importance of the rankings into perspective. “I think it’s probably a nice feather in the cap. If I was never world number one when I’m this close, I would be disappointed, but I would also much rather win the US Open and not be number one at all this year. That’s what it comes down to.”
Is there anything more important to these guys than winning majors? Other than perhaps the Ryder Cup, I think not.
What would you do?
You and your four-ball are one of six groups belonging to the Shankers Golfing Society, playing out of Shankers Bar on Soi Choke. On this day you are playing Bangpra.
During play on the ninth hole, your caddie, who you have booked regularly for the past three years, suffers a massive heart attack. She collapses and dies, right there on the fairway, before your very eyes.
You look to your playing partners, all of whom have their regular caddies on their bag. They are understandably distraught.
Do you:
1. Arrange for the caddie master to replace your caddie forthwith, in the hope you are able to play on quickly and thus not forced to invite the following group to play through?
2. Propose that the tournament organiser arrange for all playing groups to observe a moment of silence before resuming play? This ploy should allow you to keep your place in the field, as well as give the caddie master time to find you a replacement willing to accept half the normal caddie-tip.
3. Advise your group organiser that you and your four-ball are withdrawing from the day’s golf, and suggest to him that he may consider calling a halt to that day’s tournament out of respect to a caddie whose association with you has been longstanding?
The European Tour was faced with this very situation during the final day of the Madeira Islands Open on Sunday, 11th May 2014. Incredibly, they chose option 2, above.
The European Tour, a collective owned by the players, is run by chief executive George O’Grady. O’Grady and his fellow officials often talk up the European Tour as one big family. If what happened to caddie Iain MacGregor had befallen a player, there would have been abandonment, without doubt. This decision seems to say that a caddie’s life has less standing than that of a player.
Some family!
The golfer at the centre of all this, Scotsman Alasdair Forsyth, was quoted on the official tour website as saying, “We met tournament officials and spoke to George O’Grady on the phone before taking the decision to play on, because we felt that was what Mac would have wanted.”
But two days later Forsyth contradicted that statement, telling the Daily Record: “I honestly didn’t know what was the right thing to do … but George O’Grady’s opinion was we should complete it. We didn’t argue – it was the Tour’s decision.”
Whilst not admitting they were wrong not to abandon play, the European Tour has since come out and publicly apologised for the “hurt and upset” caused by the decision.
Dane Thomas Bjorn, Chairman of the Player’s Committee, and Gerry Byrne, the caddie’s equivalent, are reportedly furious at the decision taken by the Tour. They are due to meet with tour officials to discuss future protocols within the next few weeks. Heads may roll.
Golf is a game built on respect. The European Tour showed very little of it in their decision to carry on playing.
Reprehensible.
Golfnutter
