Reviewing The World Rankings
Okay, it’s time to review the World Rankings and see how things are shaping up. Granted, it’s early in the season but there are already some surprises. Remember the “Big 5″ from a couple of years ago when it was Woods, Els, Goosen, Singh, and Mickelson? They were supposed to be the world-beaters and dominate the game for years to come. Evidently, some of the younger players didn’t get the memo.
Now the top 5 consists of Woods, Furyk, Mickelson, Scott, and Henrikson. This is the top 5 in the world folks, a very heady list to be included on at any point in your career, so it’s no small feat that Henrikson is now part of this club. So at first glance, the U.S. dominates the list, taking 3 of the top 5 spots. However, look a little further at the top 10. The next 5 positions belong to Els, Ogilvy, Goosen, Singh, and Donald. Translated, that means Americans comprise 30% of the top 10.
But it gets more interesting. The next 5 positions are taken by Harrington, Immelman, Garcia, Casey, and Howell III. Notice a trend here? The U.S. players comprise 20% of the top 15 positions in the world rankings. The point of this is to point out that professional golf is about world players now and not just Americans, and we have to stop being surprised that international players are dominating the world rankings. And we wonder the U.S. keeps getting spanked in the Ryder Cup?