Early this week Ryo Ishikawa officially "came of age". In Japan the second Monday of January is "Coming of Age Day", a special holiday day where those who've reached 20, the age of majority, are celebrated with festivities, ceremonies and parties.
Soon after the celebration the intrepid young golfer was heading to Hawaii for the Sony Open which begins tomorrow. In the meantime, an intense ten hour practice round at Waialea Golf Club golf course seemed to demonstrate that the hardworking Japanese superstar had paid little heed to the words of Lee Westwood who a couple of weeks ago suggested that Ishikawa was "far too intense" and "needed to get away from golf more".
The young phenom will be paired with Webb Simpson and K.J. Choi at Sony, and it's a pretty sure bet they'll be one of the most followed groups.
The Golf Channel's Randall Mell suggested that the "Bashful Prince" was in golf's "hot seat" as he hasn't yet proved himself on US soil. While some readers agreed with that assessment, many disagree, citing his myriad wins in Japan... and his youth. In any case, lots of us are expecting (and looking forward to) a Ryo Ishikawa PGA Tour win in 2012.
As one commenter perceptively wrote, I think a win by a Ryo Ishikawa will do the world of golf a lot of good.
Note: Many thanks to Noriko, a friend and an avid Ryo Ishikawa fan in Japan.
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.
Some suggested there was simply too much nuance inherent in the game for any ranking system based strictly on data to be relevant ...which was kind of interesting until that post abrubtly ended with a facile quip on Luke Donald's recent fashion daring.
PGATour.com's Melanie Hauser wrote what I found to be the best breakdown of the current OWGR controversy, providing some historical perspective and finishing with a call to "sit back and enjoy the shuffle". Which is definitely what I'll do. --->
I do have one suggestion for the OWGR that might go a long way towards making their rankings more engaging for a wider swath of the population... those like myself who just aren't that into raw data on who's #1: Have a look at the Rolex Rankings.
Women's golf certainly knows something about a shuffle at the top, but they don't seem to get bogged down by it. And the Women's World Golf Ranking... the Rolex Rankings... do some extremely sexy things with their stats. They also provide a depth of information about the game that makes the battle for number one... and the trajectories of individual players... much, much, much more engaging than the bare-bones OWGR site.
The Rolex site is easy-on-the-eyes and interactive; fans can select favorite players and compare their progress infographically. It's brilliant and I'm quite sure that if applied to the OWGR it would encourage... and enrich... engagement with men's professional golf. The tiresome discussion of who should, could, would be #1 is fine for hardened golf journalists/bloggers/scribes but the rest of us would surely appreciate a little infographic love.
They light competitive fires in athletes and inspire passion in fans. And for quite a few years, golf didn't have any rivalries. No real ones anyway.
Golf had Tiger Woods, one player so dominant it seemed no one would ever step up to challenge him. Those whose job it was to write about golf, lamented the lack of a worthy adversary... and latched onto Phil Mickelson... to little avail. Ultimately, the Tiger/Phil stories were rarely compelling, in part because Mickelson never appeared to have much appetite for being the anti-Tiger.
Then came 2010. Lefty's season seemed to start and end with his touching win at the Masters. Meanwhile Europeans won the remaining three majors... plus the Ryder Cup.
Wracked by scandal and vilified by many in sports media, Woods floundered. He went from event to event, offering little hope for a much-awaited comeback, however despite the winless season... and the reams of righteous indignation put forth by the press... it was clear that Tiger was still US golf's best hope. And from a fan-standpoint, far-and-away the player who generated the most interest, passion and excitement.
When England's Lee Westwood usurped Woods as the number one golfer in the world, the beleaguered American was just beginning to show signs that his swing revisions were working and it was starting to seem like he's put "the scandal" behind him. This led to the first shy speculation that there may actually be a true Tiger Woods rivalry in the cards.
Headlines coming out of the Chevron World Challenge yesterday reflected the continued consternation many journalists still feel about Tiger Woods and his game, while International headlines vaunted the awesome clutch-putting win by affable Graeme McDowell. Others were quick to dismiss the tournament altogether, as a highly curated exhibition that revealed little. Be that as it may, fan sentiment is best reflected these days on the social networks particularly, Twitter where hashtags and keywords can provide a real-time snapshot of the level of engagement and enthusiasm surrounding a particular person or event ...and yesterday afternoon it was crystal clear. A Tiger Woods rivalry is still what golf fans want. In everyone from the avid golf fanatic to the most peripheral golf-observer-in-passing, a final round with Tiger in the mix... or the possibility of such... drives interest and provokes passion for golf.
That's just the way it is ...and it seems to we as golf fans should be rather optimistic for 2011. With players like Lee Westwood, Graeme McDowell and a number of others seemingly ready to take on Tiger it seems that for the time being, our rivalry drought may well be over.
However, with the tournament set to spill into Monday, the outcome is far from decided. The Monday finish... and controversy regarding tickets... once again provided a Bethpage flashback. It's inherently difficult to administrate weather issues at events this big.
But for now Westwood is trending and the dowdiness of "Captain CoMo" is dissipating, as the European team puts away foursomes and fourballs. ~ However on our side at the moment, Rickie Fowler is being brilliant... as he often will be... and he's giving US fans something to cheer tweet about. @nouses, "Rickie Fowler, you are ridiculous. Eagle on 11, fighting back."
Watching the #rydercup time-line flow past on Twitter is uniquely entertaining; it's an unlikely juxtaposition of subtlty and vitriol, as in: @FannyIngabout, "I quite fancy Graham McDowell. #thereivesaidit" and @JojoDonovan, "Shut it blubber Watson!!!! See Westwood's celebration for tips to celebrate with dignity"
And so it goes. It's a huge event and the international rivalry aspect is perfectly presented in the live global forum that is Twitter ~ But there's another massive sporting event trending right now.
The Commonwealth Games begin today, and what happens there... in Delhi, India... will have more impact on the future of international sports competitions... including golf tournaments... than many seem to realize.
India's ability to pull off these games has been called into question repeatedly during the lead-up to today's opening ceremonies. As recently a couple of weeks ago some were whispering that the country might just not be ready. The allegations of corruption and the evidence of shoddy construction many wonder if the infrastructure improvements needed for something so massive this were too ambitious. On the other hand most agree that if this does work well, it'll provide a huge boost for all sports and potential sporting events, in one of the world's largest and fastest growing economies.
Golf won't be part of the Commonwealth Games this year, although it might be in the future. It seems the golf simulator in the athletes village has become hugely popular among sportsmen and women of all nationalities event those who've never played the game. So much so that it's being written... and tweeted... about quite profusely. Which I think is kind of awesome.
Now, getting back to the Ryder Cup tweets, lets see... @AbGatorade, "This is like watching a train wreck in slow motion" ... @Smithkyle4, "Europe will surrender at some point, as per tradition"
Alrighty then, I'm off to play nine at Richter Park. Catch up with you later.
