The World Golf Rankings

It seems to be much talked of but did you know that it’s only since 1986 there has been an official world golf ranking list. I say ‘only’ because I truly believe that 1994 was 10 years ago. Anyway, Bernard Langer was the first official number one when the list was inaugurated prior to the 1986 Masters. Greg Norman soon overtook Langer and he finished the year on top of the rankings.

The calculation of the world ranking is quite complex using averages over 2 years and different values for the various golf tours. 

The purpose of the calculations is to give a higher ranking to the most consistent players while also rewarding those who perform well in the majors and other big events where the number of higher ranked players is greater.

Only 2 players have been at world no 1 without winning a major; Luke Donald and Lee Westwood.There are always complaints when the world rankings don’t favour your favourite player but you should always remember that being consistently highly placed in a tournament is often more rewarding that being a one time winner and doing nothing else of note.

Since the average is taken over 2 years it has happened that a golfer who has been dominant in one year can hold on to the number one spot despite have a poor second year. As an example, in the year 2000, Tiger Woods earned so many points that even if he had not gained any points in 2001 his average points would have had him in the number 1 spot.

This was really just a general musing into the history of the number one players in golf. Although some may disagree, even with the rankings officially starting in 1986, I’m still not convinced that the number one golfer is always the best either in a season or long term. 

Should the system be changed to reflect a more season to season raking - yes, probably - but at the end of the day being number one is just a title and I’d rather be world number 8 and hit all my professional goals. 

On that note, with my love of statistics I thought it would be of interest to have a look at the players that have been world number 1, how many weeks they have held that position and what percentage of time they have spent at number one across all number 1 golfers.

The Golf Courses are Finished!!

In a task that I expected to take one week, two at the most, I have now been sitting documenting all the golf courses across Scotland for over a month now.

But (and I need a drumroll for this, I feel…) I have finally finished!!

Woo hoo!

As you know, I love my stats, so I thought it would be fun to have some pointless facts about the golf courses in Scotland that I have grown to loathe over this last month!

Any excuse!

• The longest golf course in Scotland is the St Andrews Duke’s Course at 7512 yards.

• The shortest is 916 yards and is Foulford Inn in Crieff.

• There are 570 courses in Scotland.

• The courses with the most holes (27 for both) are Kilmarnock’s Barassie course and Rutherford Castle.

• The course with the highest par is Lochgreen in Troon. It has a par of 74.

• The highest standard scratch score across the country is 75. This is shared by Roxburghe, Carnoustie, St Andrews Duke’s and Royal Troon.

As much as I do love stats, this is all I could muster after having stared at my spreadsheet for so long. These are all according to my lists. Don’t get mad if there are any discrepancies - they are entirely my own!

The massive list has now been passed to the web-designer bloke who is tearing his hair out as he tries to incorporate them all into a readable, useable design that looks smart. We’re hoping to get the list up and running in segments (otherwise it might be 2015 before we get the whole thing done) so watch the website and we’ll let you know when it’s ready to use!

Who's Going To Win?

It’s not long to go now until The Ryder Cup and I’m very excited!

I was looking at the teams playing for The Ryder Cup this week and I tried to find which one has the advantage and was more likely to win.

Well… not as easy as I had thought!

So before I go to the bookies to place my 10p bet (last of the big spenders, I know!) I decided to look at some statistics.

So, combining my love of golf and numbers, I drew up a spreadsheet. Who doesn’t love a good spreadsheet?

Some of the most interesting bits and bobs:

The Europeans are older with an average age of 35 v 33 for the Americans.

Europe’s players have had 31 previous appearances on the squad with America trailing at 29.

The top 2 most experienced players are in the American team with 17 appearances between them. Europe has 14.

There are 3 players who are making their first appearance on a RC squad.

The average world ranking is 20 for Europe and 16 for the Americans.

The European players have had 14 tournament wins this year v 11 for the Americans.

The European players have won 3 of the 4 majors.

It is even in the 4 WGC events.

In the top 10 shoot-out the Europeans have 91 v 89 for the Americans.

Am I any the wiser? 

Erm, not really! But it was fun (did I mention I love a spreadsheet?!).

One statistic which pops up is that the player with the poorest record this year seems to be Phil Mickelson.

That alone tells me to forget the statistics. (Any player that can hit the hospitality area two times in two rounds has something special going on!! #philwashere)

They are all great players and the team that wins will be the one that wants it most.

With that said: Come on Europe!!!