Capelle On Golf

The Field Scores
This tournament offers a unique opportunity to compare golfer’s from around the world on an equal footing. The results after 36 holes are exactly what you’d expect. The top 10 ranked players are averaging 1.7 shots per round less than the bottom 10 within the WGR’s top 100. The 10 players out of the top 100 (average WGR of 160.1) are averaging over three shots per round higher than the top 10. Those rankings do work! Stay tuned for the final results.
Gregory Havret (71.0 – WGR 136) and Graeme Storm (70.5 – WGR 141) are hanging with the big boys while Chapchai Nirat (70.0 – WGR 166) is the big surprise of the tournament. (See below).

———————–36 Holes ——Ave. WGR
Top 10 ——————70.50———5.50
10 Lowest in 100 —72.20 ———71.70
Bottom 10————–73.60———-160.10
Field———————-71.59———–52.78

Nirat’s Amen Corner
Thailand’s Chapchai Nirat is off to an incredible start considering that this is his first PGA Tour event, and that he’s missed the cut in all five starts on the European Tour in ‘08. Nirat has bogeyed 11, 12, 13 both days, his Doral version of Augusta National’s famed Amen Corner. Still he’s -4 for the tournament. Tiger’s played Nirat’s Corner in -2, picking up 8 shots on Nirat, and he leads him by 7.

International Flavor
Since this is a World Golf Championship event I thought it would be interesting to look at the performance of the five countries with the most entrants. The table gives each “teams” average scores for the first two rounds. Four of the five nations are closely bunched. Ernie Els’ 74.5 average has hurt the South African squad.
Australia (10) —-71.50
England (8) ——71.19
South Africa (10) —73.20
Sweden (5) ——71.00
USA (22) ———71.27

Masters Hopefuls
Our seven Masters hopefuls have all fallen well off the pace set by a group of players who are going low at the Blue Monster. The table shows how far they are off the pace of placing in the required finish to qualify for the Masters.

Graeme McDowell -1 lagging by 5
Mark Brown +3 lagging by 8
Peter Hanson +1 lagging by 7
Colin Montgomerie +5 lagging by 11
Ryuji Imada -3 lagging by 6
Brendan Jones +7 lagging by 13
Louis Oosthuizen +2 lagging by 8
Ross Fisher -3 lagging by 8

Puerto Rico
Jerry Kelly is one back at the half way point after rounds of 67-66, and looking good for a shot at Augusta.

Bradley Dredge’s Wheels Come Off
Dredge was cruising along at -5 after 30 holes of play – then boom – triple, bogey, par, bogey, par, bogey. Six over on the last six holes. 33t, 11 back, with 36 to go, and dreams of Augusta will have to wait until at least next week. Two more shots if he’s playing the next two weeks. Was it Masters pressure asserting itself from across the Atlantic? More than likely.