PGA Hot Topics

By Bryan Douglass

~ Hot Topic of the Week ~



- I've Got a Friend Named Lee


(Forgive me... if you were kind enough to tune in to the Fanball Drive show on Sunday night, found on Sirius/XM Fantasy Sports Radio, channels 211 on Sirius or 147 for XM subscribers, you may have caught the start of this rant following the close of the Open Championship. It is a topic I've tracked for some time and, with several of the heads suggesting one of the names in this rant - not the name listed in the title - should be listed as the favorite for PGA Golfer of the Year, I can't avoid it any longer.)

Below you will find the updated World Golf Rankings. With Louis Oosthuizen shocking the golf world with victory at the Open Championship, the rankings failed to change much from the week before.

Oosthuizen was ranked 54th coming into the third major of the season and the win boosted him, as it should, to 15th.

Rory McIlroy moved up two spots from ninth to seventh (in case you didn't notice, he finished in a tie for third place despite the 80 on Friday).

Luke Donald has worked his way back into the top 10 while Ian Poulter is steadily working his way out.

Padraig Harrington continues to fall, Martin Kaymer continues to climb, and Edoardo Molinari is trying to introduce himself.

The list doesn't garner a ton of talk in most golf circles but it has become an influential tool for the fantasy owner. You can see trends, you can track play away from the PGA Tour, you can witness the rise of young duffers and international powers, and you can follow the slow-yet-intriguing changing of the guard if/when it happens.

For 267 weeks, it has not. Tiger Woods has been sitting in first place for 267 consecutive weeks, easily the longest any golfer has retained the top spot in the history of this ranking system... and as you know, his stature in professional golf has taken a significant hit. He's struggled with multiple injuries, missed a ton of time from professional golf, and we are watching him struggle to get back to a level of dominance we once praised and adored.

With that came a bevy of articles suggesting Phil Mickelson might, for the first time ever, reach the pinnacle of the list and thus end the reign of Tiger Woods. For over two months Mickelson has been "within striking distance" of Tiger on the WGR and there have been numerous articles dedicated to his chase of the honor. Lefty has never been ranked as the top golfer in the world despite an illustrious career and this season, following the win at The Masters with a 2nd-place finish at Quail Hollow, he was as close as he had ever been... and the speculation followed.

It started at THE PLAYERS where a win for Mickelson and a missed cut for Tiger would have brought a changing of the guard, but Lefty finished T17. That performance was followed by a missed cut at the Crowne Plaza Invitational, clearly of detriment to the fight for No. 1. However, after a T5 finish for Phil at the Memorial where Tiger finished T19, the two headed to the US Open with clear and present objectives. If Phil wins and Tiger fails the two would switch spots.

Both players tied for fourth place.

However, following a T46 finish at the AT&T National the headlines were sent out to the masses... Phil Mickelson could overtake Tiger on his own with a strong finish at the Barclays Scottish Open, Lefty's prep tourney for the Open Championship.

He missed the cut. Now you add the T48 finish for Phil at the British with a T23 finish for Tiger and suddenly Mickelson has not only squandered chances to get there... now he's heading in the wrong direction.

During all of this, Lee Westwood was quietly moving in for the kill. Here are Westwood's finishes during that same span, starting with The Masters: 2nd place (The Masters), T38 (Quail Hollow), T4 (THE PLAYERS), T10 (BMW PGA Championship), WIN (St. Jude Classic), T16 (US Open), T18 (Alstom Open de France), and 2nd place (Open Championship).

The only time Mickelson has topped Westwood through this fight was at Augusta... where he won, beating Westwood by three strokes. Otherwise he has been dominated by the game's new bridesmaid. He may not be winning but he is doing a much better job of getting close to it than Phil is.

And now, while we were wondering if Tiger could hold Lefty off, Westwood is within one ranking point of them both... and we should be wondering why we weren't talking about it.


~ Stock Up ~



- Jeff Overton

There were a few names that pushed to the top of the final leaderboard at the Open Championship last week but we noted Jeff Overton arriving at the very bottom of the ESPN digital board on the International broadcast, one of few Americans on that list, and we thought it was about time we brought his recent work to light.

Let's put it this way: with the finish at the British, Overton is now ranked in the top ten (number nine to be exact) on the Tour's Money Leaders and the bulk of the names listed with him have wins.

We start with the T65 finish at the Houston Open. To that point Overton was struggling for consistency and he wasn't finding much luck on the links. Suddenly, at one of the toughest tracks on the circuit (TPC Louisiana), Overton shot three of four rounds under 70 and nearly won the Zurich Classic (settled for second).

Since that finish, Overton has posted eight additional starts with two missed cuts and no finish worse than T26 (at THE PLAYERS, one of the best non-majors of the season): second at the Byron Nelson, third at the Crowne Plaza, T12 at the Memorial, third at the AT&T National, and finally, T11 at the British last week.

That is outstanding.


~ Stock Down ~



- Mike Weir

It's an unfortunate-yet-necessary reminder as we approach the Canadian Open. When I think of the best Canuck in golf I think of Mike Weir and the Green Jacket and the rewards he has offered to fantasy owners over the years. Weir has long stood as one of the best and most reliable performers in the business when consistent production was the name of the game, and while he has only five missed cuts through 15 starts this season, it's the finishes in between that worry.

Through those 10 cuts made Weir has earned only one top-10 finish, a T6 finish at the Bob Hope... his first start of the season... back in January. It's been six months since he presented fantasy owners with a finish of worth: T52 at Pebble Beach, T26 at the WGC CA Championship, T40 at the Arnold Palmer, T43 at The Masters, T64 at the Heritage, T33 at the Crowne Plaza, and T80 at the US Open.

Worst of all, four of his five missed cuts have come over his last six starts, sticking that Crowne Plaza finish and the second major in between. He added another missed cut last week at the British Open, killing any and all momentum he might have hoped to gain before coming home.

The Canadian Open could be a place to help Weir get back on track, but we aren't willing to bet on it.


- Official World Golf Rankings
RANK PLAYER POINTS

1 Tiger Woods 10.14
2 Phil Mickelson 9.38
3 Lee Westwood 9.15
4 Steve Stricker 7.47
5 Jim Furyk 6.61
6 Ernie Els 5.79
7 Rory McIlroy 5.72
8 Paul Casey 5.69
9 Luke Donald 5.55
10 Ian Poulter 5.38
11 Graeme McDowell 4.95
12 Martin Kaymer 4.94
13 Anthony Kim 4.83
14 Robert Allenby 4.37
15 Louis Oosthuizen 4.12
16 Retief Goosen 4.10
17 Padraig Harrington 4.01
18 Justin Rose 3.99
19 Sean O'Hair 3.87
20 Zach Johnson 3.87
21 Camilo Villegas 3.87
22 Henrik Stenson 3.84
23 Edoardo Molinari 3.81
24 Tim Clark 3.75
25 Matt Kuchar 3.68

- FedEx Cup Point Standings
PLAYER FEDEX POINT

Ernie Els 1,751
Steve Stricker 1,575
Justin Rose 1,542
Phil Mickelson 1,541
Jim Furyk 1,479
Tim Clark 1,280
Ben Crane 1,222
Anthony Kim 1,215
Dustin Johnson 1,193
Robert Allenby 1,169
Matt Kuchar 1,153
Jeff Overton 1,136
Bubba Watson 1,124
Camilo Villegas 1,116
Rickie Fowler 1,100
Bo Van Pelt 1,061
J.B. Holmes 1,028
Zach Johnson 976
Bill Haas 949
Ricky Barnes 917
Jason Bohn 901
Hunter Mahan 899
Paul Casey 882
Nick Watney 878
Luke Donald 877


- PGA Money Leaders
PLAYER EARNINGS

Ernie Els $3,941,028
Phil Mickelson $3,220,969
Justin Rose $3,159,748
Steve Stricker $2,982,169
Jim Furyk $2,883,915
Tim Clark $2,866,198
Robert Allenby $2,519,867
Anthony Kim $2,518,521
Jeff Overton $2,411,781
Dustin Johnson $2,400,564
Ben Crane $2,396,357
Matt Kuchar $2,379,955
Camilo Villegas $2,357,240
Rickie Fowler $2,171,531
Bo Van Pelt $2,095,308
Bubba Watson $2,072,761
Paul Casey $2,047,144
J.B. Holmes $1,969,338
Rory McIlroy $1,909,071
Zach Johnson $1,886,368
Retief Goosen $1,876,522
Hunter Mahan $1,790,808
Jason Bohn $1,763,673
Ian Poulter $1,753,114
Luke Donald $1,748,970



Bryan Douglass is the Managing Editor of the Fanball Sports Network as well as an Associate Editor for Fanball.com, providing analysis and commentary for the NFL and PGA neighborhoods of the world's preeminent sports community. He also serves as the Denver Broncos Correspondent (BroncosStable.com) for the Fanball Sports Network. You can find his work syndicated at RotoTimes.com, TheGolfChannel.com, and Comcast.net You can contact Bryan via email, Facebook, and Twitter.