OWGR Needs to Serve Up Some Sexy Infographics

For the time being, the era of an ultra-dominant W#1 golfer is over.

This reality has opened the door for some bombastic opinionating thoughtful discussion on the system by which golf's top player is determined.

As Lee Westwood recaptured the top spot... then quickly grew weary of of the public polemic surrounding it... myriad opinion posts and countless Twitter debates have challenged the current point system or... extolled its virtues.
 
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.

Meanwhile, Sergio Garcia Plays Poker in Paradise

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While the 2011 PGA Tour season began Thursday with the Hyundai Tournament of Champions on the paradisical Plantation Course at Kapalua, another kind of Paradise was in the cards for Sergio Garcia.

The field in Hawaii was limited to 2010 PGA Tour winners, so Señor Garcia didn't qualify, however the spirited Spaniard did qualify for a different sort of tournament... a poker tournament.

The popular professional golfer... still affectionately referred to as El Niño... got ready to celebrate his 31st birthday yesterday at the Atlantis Resort and Casino on Paradise Island in The Bahamas, by playing Texas Hold'em at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure .

Garcia, who in 2008 was ranked second in the world, has had some well-documented... um... issues with golf of late, culminating in a two month hiatus from the sport last fall.

Well, it seems he may have spent some of his self-imposed sabbatical honing his poker skills, because at Atlantis,  he was one of 28 players who won their way into day 1A of the Main Event.



"It is good fun and it is all a learning process for me" Sergio explained to CardPlayer 's Ryan Lucchesi when he was eliminated at the end of level 4.  And he made it quite clear that this foray into the world of high stakes poker did not signal career change when he added, "I know what I do for a living and that is playing golf. I don’t forget that."

Photo via CardPlayer.com
Video via PokerNews.com

Musings of a Golf Newbie - Frustration and Elation

By Jordan Farr
Over the past several weeks, I’ve become a true cheerleader for golf.

However, even though I’ve been playing more often, and spending hours at the range, I still... by most standards... suck.

Denying golf’s frustration is like... let’s see... it’s like denying a huge elephant which happens to be sitting in a barn with a bunch of small horses. Okay, that made absolutely no sense. What I’m saying is that I’ve discovered it’s useless to deny the frustrations of golf.

Speaking of frustration, it surprised me to see a number of brilliant … and seemingly established.... PGA and LPGA players heading back to Q School in hopes of regaining their tour cards. What could be more frustrating than that?

On a more... humble... level, I sometimes feel like my own frustration is nearly as epic that of the beleaguered Q School returnees, simply for because I allow it to get there.

When the swing I’ve (supposedly) been perfecting at the range produces only a series of awkward, ugly worm-burners on the golf course ...and the putts I focus on so intently just refuse to ever roll in.... I have an emotional response that involves anger and disappointment... and on occasion... a major meltdown.

Then, when I begin to play well, I get all nervous, “How will my next shot be? What if I can’t get past that damn sand trap and it ruins my best round ever!!!" Which inevitably leads to my classic newbie dilemma “WHAT CLUB DO I USE AGAIN?” All of these questions and concerns distract me from my game… and sometimes I feel like they’re ruining it... slowly and painfully.

Fortunately, there's a bright side. As in: I’m learning to marvel in my strengths and take joy in the good shots... however rare those may be at such an early stage in my golf love-affair. This naturally lowers my frustrations for when something does go awry. Setting small goals that will hopefully lead to my bigger ones, is another thing I’m trying to do.

And I’ve got to admit, by the end of each round or practice session... despite some inevitable frustration... I always seem to have a huge smile on my face because I got out there and worked on the game I’m growing to love.