Lee Westwood, the world’s #1 golfer
World number one, Lee Westwood |
At home nursing a calf injury, Lee Westwood has found himself perched atop the world golf rankings. His form over the past two years has been better than Tiger Woods which means, according to the official world golf rankings, he is now the number one golfer in the world.
Tiger Woods’ reign of 281 weeks at the top has come to an end but do the rankings lie? Or do they even matter? Given Westwood is still yet to win a major, many golf fans still believe Woods is still the world’s best golfer but it is hard to argue with Westwood’s form particularly in the latter half of this year.
Woods will have an opportunity to regain top spot this week at the WGC HSBC Champions event in Shanghai where not only is Westwood playing but all this year’s major winners.
Here’s the current Top 10 from the official world golf rankings:
1 Lee Westwood, Eng 8.29
2 Tiger Woods, USA 8.13
3 Martin Kaymer, Deu 7.98
4 Phil Mickelson, USA 7.83
5 Steve Stricker, USA 7.2
6 Jim Furyk, USA 7.09
7 Paul Casey, Eng 6.14
8 Luke Donald, Eng 5.7
9 Rory McIlroy, Nir 5.44
10 Graeme McDowell, Nir 5.43
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The best on the planet without a major?
Yes! Hmmm. Either the rankings aren’t a good measure or majors are overrated.
I think people get confused when talking about world rankings. The OWGR doesn’t rank talent, in which case Tiger is clearly ahead of Lee, but performance over a 2-year time period. The OWGR values consistency most and wins second; Lee has been more consistent, although Tiger had several more wins that were over a year old, and Lee ranked better in the majors this year. (Neither has a major in 2009 or 2010.)
Personally, I think Kaymer is performing better than either at this point. Lee has 3 wins in two years — only 1 this year and no majors; Woods has 7 wins (including the JBWere Masters) and no majors during that time; but Kaymer has 6 wins including one major… and 4 of those wins were this year. But I think wins should count more than consistency; that’s why we have different ranking systems. 😉
Well said Mike. You’ve summed it up perfectly. Looking at it that way – Kaymer looks more like the golfer of the moment.