The Ruthless Golf World Rankings: November 2013 (Sort of)

I haven't done an RGWR in about 3 months... and there won't be a regular one before the first of the year. Here's the deal: I was using a program on an older computer which was my main computer when I started my rankings. Then the computer died and I'm having to completely redo the file in a new program that I'm still learning. That's going to take a while.

In the meantime I wanted to explain the current RGWR Top5 in the sidebar because it's something I've never had in the rankings before -- three players who are essentially tied for #1 in the rankings. How did this happen?



Tiger Woods has led the RGWR for several months on the strength of his 5 wins:

• Farmers Insurance Open
• World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship
• Arnold Palmer Invitational
• THE PLAYERS Championship
• World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational

He didn't play particularly well after Bridgestone in early August (he did manage a T2 at the Barclays). While I give a bit more weight to recent play, I'm cutting him a bit of slack because of his back problems. The fact is that the RGWR measures the last 12 months, and Tiger had a TPC, 2 WGCs, and 2 prestige wins during that time. That should be enough to make him the undisputed #1.

But it isn't. Two other players have come on late in the year to challenge Tiger's domination of my rankings.

Adam Scott is 1a in my rankings. He has 4 worldwide wins so far:

• The Masters
• The Barclays
• The Australian PGA Championship
• The Talisker Masters

He also had Top5s in 2 other majors -- the Open Championship (T3) and the PGA Championship (T5) -- as well as a T3 at the WGC Cadillac. The major counts big because he's the only one of the three with a major this year, plus he made history with that win (first Australian to win the Masters).

You could argue that the two latest wins were against lesser fields, but I would argue that they were played under enormous pressure -- after all, this is Adam's first trip back home since winning the Masters and it's a victory tour of sorts. Under that pressure he won the Aussie PGA (completing the Triple Crown -- only 6 Aussies have ever done that) and defended his title at the Aussie Masters. This puts him in position to win the Triple Crown in a single year, a feat accomplished only once before. All done under the pressure of being the "hometown hero."

In other words, Tiger has more strong wins but Adam's might be more impressive. And bear in mind that Adam is still playing well.

Henrik Stenson is 1b in my rankings and he may be the most interesting. His run begins the latest in the year, although he does have a win from last December. He also has 4 worldwide wins so far:

• South African Open
• Deutsche Bank Championship
• TOUR Championship
• DP World Tour Championship

Like Adam, he also had Top5s in the Open Championship (2nd) and the PGA Championship (3rd), and he added a T3 in the Scottish Open. And we mustn't forget that he's the first man to win both the FedExCup and the Race to Dubai in the same season.

Although Henrik has the fewest wins, you can argue that most of them were against the toughest fields -- he won the Tour Championships on both tours! Injury has forced him to withdraw from the SA Open this week, so he won't be defending his title and it could interrupt his run of good play for a while. Still, you can make a decent argument that Henrik is playing better than anybody right now.

That's why you see three players tied for #1 in the RGWR. These three have separated themselves from the rest of the pack... but not from each other. If Adam can win the Aussie Open -- the 3rd leg of the Triple Crown -- in a couple of weeks, he'll have made a very real case for being solo #1 right now. But I don't expect a clear winner to emerge before sometime in January or February 2014, after all three have had a chance to tee it up in some big tournaments.

In the meantime, I suspect there will be some serious debates going on!

The photo came from this page at golf.com.