By Sam Johnson
Americans are famous for their lack of knowledge about the rest of the world. It's one of many reasons the people from across both ponds think less of us than we think they should. However, golf may be somewhat of an exception. What golfer hasn't heard of Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia or any one of a dozen other international players... and there is a good reason for that phenomenon. This week's ranking of the top fifty golfers in the world places only sixteen Americans in that group. Of course, three of those sixteen are the first three, Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson, and five of those sixteen are in the top twenties.
According to the rankings the number two power in the world is Australia with a total of nine players, two of which are in the top ten and three in the top twenty. Third is South Africa with six players, one top ten and four top twenties. The inventors of the great game, the Scots/ English, rank fourth with five players (one Scotsman and four English), no top tens and only two top twenties, followed by the Swedes with four players with one in the top ten.
If you've been watching the majors you know that both Argentina and Spain have two players each. Likewise, our Canadian friends up north have two players, and unlike the ladies' Tour, which is dominated by Koreans, the men's Tour only has one.
It's a bit of a surprise, because they are such rabid golfers, but the Irish have only one player in the top fifty; Padraig Harrington is the number six ranked player in the world, which is exactly the same number for the country that claims the number seven player in the world, Vijay Singh from Fiji.
Certainly golf doesn't come close to soccer in the number of players participating around the world, and I guess it really doesn't challenge soccer in the number of countries participating either, but it makes you proud to know that the top ten players in golf represent seven different countries and that they have 850,000,000 frequent flyer miles collectively.
|
Player |
Country |
Average |
Points |
Events |
Lost |
Gained |
| 1 |
Tiger Woods |
USA |
22.10 |
905.94 |
41 |
-474.77 |
+529.53 |
| 2 |
Jim Furyk |
USA |
8.69 |
460.34 |
53 |
-240.53 |
+217.85 |
| 3 |
Phil Mickelson |
USA |
8.44 |
362.95 |
43 |
-187.95 |
+265.76 |
| 4 |
Ernie Els |
SAf |
7.67 |
383.67 |
50 |
-149.84 |
+245.79 |
| 5 |
Adam Scott |
Aus |
6.48 |
323.96 |
50 |
-183.48 |
+141.70 |
| 6 |
Padraig Harrington |
Ire |
6.23 |
367.79 |
59 |
-143.45 |
+201.95 |
| 7 |
Vijay Singh |
Fij |
5.88 |
370.62 |
63 |
-224.52 |
+266.37 |
| 8 |
Sergio Garcia |
Spn |
5.53 |
287.48 |
52 |
-151.97 |
+190.44 |
| 9 |
Geoff Ogilvy |
Aus |
5.49 |
263.31 |
48 |
-147.37 |
+141.48 |
| 10 |
Henrik Stenson |
Swe |
5.30 |
275.38 |
52 |
-145.48 |
+180.41 |
| 11 |
Luke Donald |
Eng |
5.10 |
265.28 |
52 |
-147.01 |
+142.82 |
| 12 |
Choi Kyung-Ju |
Kor |
5.09 |
310.22 |
61 |
-97.37 |
+226.85 |
| 13 |
Rory Sabbatini |
SAf |
4.96 |
257.93 |
52 |
-80.70 |
+208.70 |
| 14 |
Steve Stricker |
USA |
4.83 |
198.09 |
41 |
-42.28 |
+156.42 |
| 15 |
Justin Rose |
Eng |
4.75 |
246.75 |
52 |
-70.27 |
+173.69 |
| 16 |
Zach Johnson |
USA |
4.49 |
242.42 |
54 |
-81.90 |
+194.95 |
| 17 |
Retief Goosen |
SAf |
4.47 |
277.27 |
62 |
-208.40 |
+147.25 |
| 18 |
Trevor Immelman |
SAf |
4.24 |
228.97 |
54 |
-122.31 |
+102.28 |
| 19 |
Angel Cabrera |
Arg |
4.16 |
199.72 |
48 |
-90.20 |
+134.81 |
| 20 |
Paul Casey |
Eng |
4.07 |
227.82 |
56 |
109.14 |
+127.18 |
| 21 |
Niclas Fasth |
Swe |
3.91 |
199.37 |
51 |
-72.84 |
+148.79 |
| 22 |
Stewart Cink |
USA |
3.84 |
199.71 |
52 |
-82.00 |
+118.36 |
| 23 |
Scott Verplank |
USA |
3.55 |
177.47 |
50 |
-75.24 |
+138.72 |
| 24 |
David Toms |
USA |
3.54 |
166.41 |
47 |
-105.27 |
+112.94 |
| 25 |
Stuart Appleby |
Aus |
3.21 |
192.47 |
60 |
-99.29 |
+116.54 |
| 26 |
Nick O'Hern |
Aus |
3.18 |
174.67 |
55 |
-95.67 |
+103.23 |
| 27 |
Andres Romero |
Arg |
3.11 |
155.51 |
50 |
-28.22 |
+123.82 |
| 28 |
Charles Howell-III |
USA |
3.10 |
188.91 |
61 |
-77.61 |
+170.10 |
| 29 |
Arron Oberholser |
USA |
3.10 |
126.93 |
41 |
-59.42 |
+74.85 |
| 30 |
Richard Green |
Aus |
3.04 |
142.93 |
47 |
-52.54 |
+93.60 |
| 31 |
Aaron Baddeley |
Aus |
3.04 |
167.26 |
55 |
-56.57 |
+136.42 |
| 32 |
Ian Poulter |
Eng |
2.89 |
173.51 |
60 |
-87.63 |
+79.75 |
| 33 |
Brett Wetterich |
USA |
2.83 |
164.14 |
58 |
-69.87 |
+88.92 |
| 34 |
Woody Austin |
USA |
2.81 |
174.30 |
62 |
-38.65 |
+140.82 |
| 35 |
Robert Allenby |
Aus |
2.77 |
163.56 |
59 |
-98.48 |
+103.17 |
| 36 |
Stephen Ames |
Can |
2.77 |
124.54 |
45 |
-67.81 |
+74.64 |
| 37 |
Richard Sterne |
SAf |
2.72 |
133.11 |
49 |
-31.80 |
+124.22 |
| 38 |
Rod Pampling |
Aus |
2.71 |
162.37 |
60 |
-89.92 |
+88.64 |
| 39 |
Tim Clark |
SAf |
2.68 |
131.27 |
49 |
-105.52 |
+65.98 |
| 40 |
Anders Hansen |
Den |
2.67 |
128.23 |
48 |
-36.90 |
+96.91 |
| 41 |
Boo Weekley |
USA |
2.66 |
149.18 |
56 |
-22.18 |
+131.56 |
| 42 |
Colin Montgomerie |
Sco |
2.63 |
155.16 |
59 |
-128.80 |
+77.42 |
| 43 |
Davis Love-III |
USA |
2.56 |
125.65 |
49 |
-103.20 |
+55.79 |
| 44 |
Jose M Olazabal |
Spn |
2.53 |
128.98 |
51 |
-110.28 |
+56.81 |
| 45 |
Robert Karlsson |
Swe |
2.52 |
146.05 |
58 |
-76.48 |
+51.65 |
| 46 |
Mike Weir |
Can |
2.50 |
125.17 |
50 |
-63.07 |
+68.22 |
| 47 |
John Senden |
Aus |
2.39 |
145.95 |
61 |
-60.86 |
+88.31 |
| 48 |
Carl Pettersson |
Swe |
2.37 |
149.40 |
63 |
-98.53 |
+68.62 |
| 49 |
Hunter Mahan |
USA |
2.34 |
147.39 |
63 |
-25.39 |
+122.37 |
| 50 |
Chris DiMarco |
USA |
2.33 |
139.60 |
60 |
-108.18 |
+71.66 |
