Carmen Diode World Top Ten Golfer Rankings News

NEWS

10/31/2006

Crime Spree Dominates Carmen Diode World Top Ten Golfer Rankings News
By: Carmen Diode

This past week was arguably the most significant week in professional golf for 2006, but all of that was lost in a week where baseball's world series was decided (congratulations to the St. Louis Cardinals), radio commentator Rush Limbaugh made fun of actor Michael Fox's Parkinson's affliction, a notable celebrity couple (Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe) decided to call it quits, and St. Louis was being tagged as America's most dangerous city (even as thugs ran amok in the middle of play at the Chrysler Championship on the gilded fairways of the Innisbrook golf resort in Palm Harbor, Florida).

Most of golf's significant professional tours held their final events of the 2006 season determining which golfers get to play where next year based on their positions on the final money earnings lists. The Champions Tour crowned their Charles Schwab Cup Champion (Jay Haas), The European Tour declared their order of merit title winners (Padraig Harrington for the dudes and Laura Davis for the ladies) and numerous automatic exemptions and invitations were secured. In addition to all of this, Tiger Woods announced that he would skip the Tour Championship next week for the first time in his career, and Larry Nelson and Vijay Singh were inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

The Chrysler Championship may be short on glamour but as the final full-field event of the year it becomes the last opportunity for players to secure positions on the bottom spots on the money list, with significant stops on the ladder at No. 30 (Tour Championship), No. 40 (Masters invitation), No. 125 (full status next year) and No. 150 (conditional status).

K.J. Choi won for the fourth time on the PGA Tour with his win at the crime-riddled Chrysler Championship in Palm Harbor, Florida. He gave much of the credit to a new driver that he started using last week. The driver is square and sounds like a tuna can attached to a shaft, according to Ernie Els (leading one to wonder if Els has played with clubs crafted from tuna cans).

Paul Goydos finished second and the $466,000 that he earned saved him from having to earn his way back on to next year's your via a trip to Q-school. Goydos' second place finish vaulted him from 160th on the money list to 97th place. In one interview Goydos compared his game to the stock market noting that his game had been improving at a rate of 5 percent while the rest of the "market" was improving at a rate of 15 percent. Knowledgeable brokers are recommending a short position on Goydos chances for next year.

Ernie Els had to scramble for two pars on the final two holes to secure a position on the top 30 earnings list and an invitation to next week's Tour Championship. No word yet on whether he may be switching back to the tuna can clubs that started him on his path to golf greatness.

Rookie Troy Matteson scored his fifth consecutive top-ten finish placing 9th in the Chrysler Championship.

An interesting side story to the Chrysler tournament saw two juvenile burglary suspects lead police on a chase through the woods and part of the tournament golf course during Friday's round. One of the suspects was caught, and authorities were searching for the other. Officers, helicopters and police dogs were all used in the chase.

"Never had a manhunt out here," Brian Gay said. Gay was only one shot out of the lead when his play was interrupted by the chase."The cops were racing up in a cart, running through the bushes and holding their gun," Gay said. "We had to get out of the way. There were cops coming down the street. The chopper was overhead, and one of the cops said they (the suspects) were armed."

A PGA Tour security spokesperson said the juvenile were suspects in the robbery of a home near Innisbrook came onto the course and tried to blend in with the gallery. They were discovered without tournament badges (and fashionable soft pastel colored golf attire), however, and dashed into the woods and onto other courses at the Innisbrook resort.

Jim Thorpe won the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup tournament played at the Sonoma Golf Club in Sonoma, California. More importantly, Loren Roberts choked on a four foot putt and lost $500,000 in the process. The miss enabled Jay Haas to win the season-long points competition for the Charles Schwab Cup and the resulting $1 million annuity. Roberts, the Champions Tour's best putter all season, couldn't make his one last putt when it counted the most and so he had to settle for a $500,000 annuity while Haas claimed his first gold cup.

Tiger Woods is skipping the Tour Championship next week for the first time in his career, saying he was mentally and physically tired from a hectic stretch through the Ryder Cup. Masters champion Phil Mickelson previously has said he is done playing for the year, and Stephen Ames withdrew with a back injury. Wood's decision to skip the Tour Championship, and the excuse that he gave for making his decision seem lame since he is scheduled to play the HSBC Champions event in China the week after the Tour Championship, and he is planning to defend his Dunlop Phoenix championship in Japan the following week. He is also set to play in the two-day Grand Slam of Golf and the Target World Challenge (an unofficial event that raises money for his learning center), in December.

Irishman Padraig Harrington backed in to the European order of merit title after finishing joint second at the Volvo Masters played in Sotogrande, Spain - thanks largely to some last minute poor play on the part of Spaniard Sergio Garcia and Englishman Paul Casey. India's Jeev Milkha Singh (not sure if he is related to Vijay) won the tournament. The order of merit title was Harrington's first - while his second place finish marked the 40th time that he has finished second in an event.

On the chick’s side, Annika Sorenstam won the Dubai Ladies Masters by six strokes on the Emirates Golf Club's Majlis Course - but there was little interest in this event since Michelle Wie and Natalie Gulbis were not part of the field. Laura Davies also backed in to the Ladies European Tour Order of Merit after Gwladys Nocera failed to win. Jin Joo Hong became the third South Korean player to win the country's lone LPGA Tour event in her first tour start with a three-stroke victory in the Kolon-Hana Bank Championship.

Off the course, Larry Nelson and Vijay Singh backed in to a place in the World Golf Hall of Fame. They were inducted along with former Masters and PGA champion Henry Picard; Marilynn Smith, one of the 13 founders of the LPGA Tour who won 21 times and two majors; and Mark McCormack, who founded IMG and reshaped sports management with clients ranging from Arnold Palmer to Tiger Woods. Palmer, a member of the Hall of Fame, remains retired for a third consecutive week. Nelson and Singh were elected on the PGA Tour ballot. Nelson received 65 percent of the vote, the minimum required. Singh was elected last year with 56 percent of the vote, but deferred his induction because of a commitment to play overseas last year. He still got in because of a clause in the criteria that if no one received 65 percent the vote that year, the player with the most votes would be elected as long he got more than 50 percent. Nelson won ten times on the PGA Tour - three of those wins occurring in a major tournament. Singh has won twenty-nine times on the PGA Tour and has three major tournament wins.

The official and current PGA world top ten rankings:

Tiger Woods
Jim Furyk
Phil Mickelson
Adam Scott
Vijay Singh
Retief Goosen
Ernie Els
Luke Donald
Geoff Ogilvy
Sergio Garcia

The CD World Top Ten Golfer rankings:

Tiger Woods
Padraig Harrington (eternally second and backing in)
Rookie Troy Matteson
Jim Furyk
Sergio Garcia
Palm Harbor, Fla. SWAT Team
Jay Haas (backing in)
Jin Joo Hong
Jeev Milkha Singh
Larry Nelson & Vijay Singh

US Ryder Cup - week ending Oct. 29

Tiger Woods - 1,125
Joe Durant - 735
Jim Furyk - 675
Rookie Troy Matteson - 645
Davis Love IIIIIII - 575
Eric Axley - 525
Frank Lickliter IIII - 460
Ben Curtis - Will MacKenzie - D.J. Trahan - 375
Brett Quigley - 320
Lee Janzen - 270

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