Japan Tour - Golf Nippon Series JT Cup  -  Hiroyuki Fujita  (262)
Asian Tour - King's Cup  -  Arnond Vongvanij  (266)
Sunshine Tour - Nedbank Golf Challenge  -  Martin Kaymer  (280)
Australasian Tour - NSW PGA Championship  -  Matthew Stieger  (273)
LatinoAmerica - Colombia Coffee Classic  -  Sebastian Fernandez  (275)
LET - Hero Indian Open  -  Pornagong Phatlum  (203)

…A year makes?  Not really.  Below are both this week’s top 10 in the OWR and the top 10 from exactly one year ago, and a quick glance indicates that five players from last year’s elite group remain.  As one might reasonably assume that a healthy Dustin Johnson (currently 19th) would have held his spot, and that an unscandalized Tiger Woods would have been a mainstay of last year’s top 10, that essentially means that seven of the game’s 10 best remain consistent from a year ago.

November 25, 2012

1    Rory McIlroy     13.61     
2    Luke Donald     9.28      
3    Tiger Woods     8.89     
4    Justin Rose     6.66      
5    Adam Scott     6.50      
6    Lee Westwood     6.39      
7    Louis Oosthuizen     6.35      
8    Jason Dufner     5.74      
9    Webb Simpson     5.61   
10  Brandt Snedeker     5.56     

November 27, 2011

1    Luke Donald     10.22
2    Rory McIlroy     7.48
3    Lee Westwood     7.35
4    Martin Kaymer     6.91   
5    Dustin Johnson     5.69   
6    Steve Stricker     5.69   
7    Adam Scott     6.60   
8    Jason Day     5.41   
9    Webb Simpson     5.18
10  Nick Watney     4.97   

The big losers?  Two of the game’s elite young players, Martin Kaymer and Jason Day.  Kaymer’s run to the World Number One spot seems like ancient history, but he ascended to the top spot in February of 2011, following a runner-up finish at the WGC Match Play.  He would close the year at #4 (buoyed by a late-season win at the WGC HSBC Championship) before beginning a downward spiral in 2012 – though recent top 10s at this year’s WGC HSBC and the South African Open might signal the beginnings of a return to form.  He currently stands 32nd worldwide.  Day, on the other hand, cracked the top 10 for the first time with a runner-up finish at the 2011 U.S. Open, and remained a fixture there through the spring of this year.  He has since fallen to 35th, which is somewhat surprising given that he has logged four PGA Tour top 10s during this period.

The two additional departures?  Steve Stricker (to 14th) and Nick Watney (16th), neither of whom have gone very far.

But the big story within these numbers is......Rory McIlroy, of course.  McIlroy’s jump from 2nd to 1st might not automatically suggest vastly improved play, particularly given Luke Donald’s decline of nearly one full average ranking point earned per event.  But how much better was McIlroy?  His average earned skyrocketed more than six full points per event – which speaks volumes regarding a campaign which included five victories (led by the PGA Championship) and 16 top 10s in 24 starts worldwide.

Not so noticed this weekend was the victory of Australian amateur Jake Higginbottom at the Australasian Tour’s BMW New Zealand Open.  The 19-year-old closed with a fine 67 to edge Jason Norris and England’s Peter Wilson by one, and in the process joined 18-year-old Oliver Goss as the second amateur to claim an Australasian title within the last month.  When considering the disproportionally high number of world class players produced Down Under, one his hesitant to take shots at any aspect of Australian golf.  Still, these two amateur victories cannot help but speak to the lean fields which inhabit most Australasian events outside of Australia’s Big Three (the Open, the PGA and the Masters).  But admirably, the tour soldiers on…

Just when it appeared that Justin Rose would capture the E Tour’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship by carding an epic final round 62 in Dubai, along came World Number One Rory McIlroy to birdie the final five holes, and in the process seal his fifth 2012 victory worldwide.  The win padded McIlroy’s lead in the OWR significantly (his adjusted points average is now almost four and a half more than #2 Luke Donald) and lest anyone doubt the validity of the ranking, here is his ledger of worldwide results since August’s WGC Bridgestone Invitational:

T5       WGC-Bridgestone Invitational  (PGA Tour)    
Won    PGA Championship  (PGA Tour)       
T24     The Barclays  (PGA Tour)           
Won    Deutsche Bank Championship  (PGA Tour)       
Won    BMW Championship  (PGA Tour)    
T10     Tour Championship by Coca-Cola  (PGA Tour)       
2         BMW Masters  (E Tour)           
3         Barclays Singapore Open  (E Tour/Asia)           
MC      UBS Hong Kong Open  (E Tour/Asia)       
Won    DP World Tour Championship  (E Tour)       

That’s a cool four wins and eight top-10 finishes in 10 starts, nearly all against very strong international fields .  For the record, McIlroy ascended to the World Number One spot (for the third time) following his runaway victory at the PGA Championship, and has only extended his lead since.  So as we close 2012, Rory McIlroy is clearly the best golfer in the world.  And it’s not even close.

European Tour - DP World Tour Championship  -  Rory McIlroy  (265)
Japan Tour -  Casio World Open  -  Jung-Gon Hwang  (269)
Sunshine Tour - Cape Town Open  -  Jake Roos  (279)
Australasian Tour - BMW New Zealand Open  -  Jake Higginbottom (a)  (281)
JLPGA Tour - JLPGA Tour Championship  -  Bo-Mee Lee  (203)

…That the R&A, co-conspirator with the USGA in burying their heads in the sand with regard to the effects of modern equipment, will be undertaking changes to toughen up the Old Course in preparation for the 2015 Open Championship (the list of planned alterations appears here).  That the Old Course hasn’t been substantially changed since 1949 – and that it remains among the least-altered championship courses on the planet – is apparently of little relevance now.  The game’s governing bodies have spent the better part of two decades abrogating their regulatory responsibilities, and now apparently plan to place a finger bandage on a gaping wound by instituting a putter-anchoring ban which took them a full 20 years to figure out.  And now, to cover for this legacy of non-governing governance, they will make changes to the game’s most sacred playing ground – a move which, as my friend Geoff Shackelford points out, they not-so-proudly tried to bury by announcing it not only on a Friday but also the day after American Thanksgiving. 

It’s good to see that the game remains in such responsible and courageous hands.

European Tour - UBS Hong Kong Open  -  Miguel Angel Jimenez  (265)
European Tour - South African Open  - Henrik Stenson  (271)
Japan Tour - Dunlop Phoenix  -  Luke Donald  (268)
Asian Tour - See European Tour (Above)
Sunshine Tour - See European Tour (Above)
Australasian Tour - Talisker Australian Masters  -  Adam Scott  (271)
LatinoAmerica - Puerto Rico Classic  -  Sebastian Vazquez  (274)
LPGA Tour - CME Group Titleholders  -  Na Yeon Choi  (274)
JLPGA Tour - Saio Paper Elleair Open  -  Miki Saiki  (205)

Men's professional golf may be officially done in North America for 2012 but this coming week offers a trio of significant events in far off corners of the globe.  Tops on the list is the 103rd playing of the South African Open, an event which has drawn varied levels of field over the years (largely dependent upon its spot on the ever-shifting international calendar) and which has been co-sanctioned by the European Tour since 1997.  Foreigners have made the occasional splash here over the decades but by and large the Open's list of champions speaks to the degree of dominance demonstrated domestically by South Africa's four greatest golfers: Sid Brews (a glaring omission from the World Golf Hall of Fame and an eight-time champion between 1925 and 1952), the legendary Bobby Locke (nine times a winner from 1935-1955, the first two as an amateur), Gary Player (unbelievably a 13-time winner between 1956 and 1981) and, most recently, Ernie Els, a five-time champion.  This year's playing will be the second at the Serengeti Golf & Wildlife Estate, a modern Jack Nicklaus-designed facility located east of Johannesburg (course info here, event website here)...............Next up is the Hong Kong Open, an event which dates to 1959 and which has been co-sanctioned by the European Tour since 2001.  Once again, shifting schedules are an issue, leaving the E Tour in the rather odd position of co-sanctioning two major international events (located some 6,600 miles apart) during the same week.  At least in terms of European stars, Hong Kong figures to be the bigger draw, largely due to the presence of World Number One Rory Mcilroy, who returns to defend his 2011 title.  The event's website is here, while the website of the colorful Hong Kong Golf Club is visible here...............Lastly, this week also offers the 34th playing of the Australian Masters, the newest of Oz's three major summer events, dating to 1979.  Though Gene Littler, Bernhard Langer, Justin Rose and (when the event went on a 2009 appearance fee binge) Tiger Woods have all won here, the overall roster of champions has been dominated by Australians, led by Greg Norman, who hoisted the trophy six times between 1981 and 1990.  Of greatest interest to overseas fans, however, is the event's venue, for it returns for the second time to Kingston Heath, a layout second only to Royal Melbourne as the nation's best.  The event's website is here, while a hole-by-hole tour of Kingston Heath is viewable here.

While the word “slump” would clearly be inappropriate, it has been a quiet 2012 for former phenoms Matteo Manassero and Ryo Ishikawa, but both re-emerged in style over the weekend.  The 19-year-old Manassero won for the first time since April of 2011 by defeating Louis Oosthuizen in a playoff at the Singapore Open, giving the young Italian a rather amazing three E Tour wins while still a teen.  Ishikawa, meanwhile, broke a far longer drought, winning for the first time in exactly two years at the Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters.  The victory was the 21-year-old Ishikawa’s 11th in his homeland, an early career run that began memorably when he claimed the 2007 Munsingwear Open KSB as a 15-year-old amateur.  Prior to this most recent win, Ishikawa had logged only five top-10s in Japan in 2012 (the best a T3 at July’s Sega Sammy Cup), though he did make himself competitive in America for the first time, finishing 2nd at March’s Puerto Rico Open (played opposite the WGC Cadillac) and tying for 9th at Memorial.

Charlie Beljan will grab a spot in PGA Tour history with his epic victory at the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Classic, having battled a case of acute anxiety that saw him carted from the golf course following a remarkable Friday 64, then recovering to close with a Sunday 69 en route to a two-shot triumph.  But Beljan also managed to save his professional life by jumping from 139th in earnings (and a return trip to Q School) all the way to 63rd – though in the end, the victory made him exempt through 2014 regardless.  Among those who snuck in under the wire, and thus retained a spot on the big stage for 2013, were:

120    David Mathis    $736,765 
121    Harrison Frazar    $730,203 
122    James Driscoll    $687,338 
123    Jeff Maggert    $682,742 
124    Tim Herron    $660,279 
125    Kevin Chappell    $647,510

The 42-year-old Herron jumped from 136th to 14th by shooting 67-69 on the weekend to tie for 9th.  Second-year player Chappell, meanwhile, began the week in 123rd place and after opening 67-69, barely hung on over the weekend with rounds of 72-73, good enough for a tie for 34th.  Beljan and Herron were the ony players who began the week outside the top 125 who successfully played their way in.