Monday, May 2, 2011

A Somewhat Sexier Look at the World Golf Rankings

Last week I lamented the dourness of the OWGR's website and their "just the facts ma'am" style of presenting data.

The subject of who actually is the #1golf in the world is generating quite a lively debate at the moment. One that would/could only be enhanced by some sexy visuals.  So with some help from my friends at IBM and their awesome Many Eyes project I've made a modest start at sexing up the stats.

Now the thing is... much as I love analytics, infographics and such... producing/explaining them is not my forte,  I'm more of a look at the pictures and turn the pages type, as the old song says.  But... someone's got to do it, so I'm making an attempt.

For my first visualization I decided to look at one of the more... um... contentious elements of the current discussion: Increased globalization and the end of U.S. dominance in men's professional golf.  For convenience sake I took an existing visualization made from 2007 data, and built the same one using current data.  This provides something of a baseline comparison.

It's not perfect.  I would like to have adjusted some of the perimeters and functionalities (probably not the right words) but I was working with a preset program and couldn't quite... figure out how to do it.  Check out the interactive diagrams at Many Eyes: the 2007 stats  and the current stats.  I'd be curious as to what you think.

I've got to admit I looked longingly at the big Tiger bubble on the 2007 model.

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