Capelle On Golf

In today’s global game we’ve got a number of events taking place most weeks, allowing touring pros to accumulate those precious World Golf Ranking (WGR) points all over the globe. Let’s begin with the European Tour – in China!

The final round of the China Open in Bejing was played in a brutal downpour that sent scores soaring. Of the 69 golfers who made the cut, only three failed to break 80 in the third round, but 23 suffered this embarrassment in the fourth round. Only three players scored lower than in the third round, and two of the three golfers who tied for second at one under started the day at -8, but carded 79s.

That brings us to our winner, 37 year old journeyman pro Damien McGrane. The Irishman scored his first victory on the European Tour by shooting a final round 73, which gave him nine shot cushion. McGrane started the week #221 in the WGR, but earned 20 points, catapulting him into the top 150 at #148 come Monday morning.

Mark Brown Breaks into the Top 60
In early March I wrote about Mark Brown’s move up the WGR. In Beijing he ground out a 77 in the driving rain to finish with 5t, earning 4.13 WGR points. But here’s the catch: he finished bogey-triple bogey. If he had just finished bogey-bogey, he would have finished in solo second, and earned 12 points instead. He would have also cracked the top 50, assuming the 48th position. As it stands, he’s #58.

The A & A Boys Shoot up the WGR
Aaron Baddeley and Anthony Kim both earned 27 WGR points for tying for second at the Verizon Heritage.

Baddeley, who started the week at #20, advanced four big spots to #16, positioning him just a notch above Trevor Immelman, our 2008 Masters champion. Badds, as you may recall, took Tiger into overtime before losing 1-down at this year’s Accenture Match Play with some spectacular golf. So far this year, the leading exponent of the Stack and Tilt swing has experienced a big improvement in his play tee-to-green. His GIR is at 65.19%, a big improvement over last year’s average of 60.88%, which had placed him near the bottom at 188th on tour.

Late last year Anthony Kim had openly admitted that he had slacked off, and his result showed it. Five weeks ago I got on his case because he chose to sit out a week when he could have been trying to earn his way into the Masters. At 22, he’s far too young to be a comeback candidate, but it seems as if his indifferent attitude is thankfully over.

This young bomber (he is #7 in distance in ’08) missed 32 greens at Harbour Town, but was over par on only six holes, which indicates that he was grinding hard for pars. Maybe his work ethic has returned. As a bonus for his superlative short game, Kim jumped 30 places from #69 to #39 in the WGR. Since he’s got a low divisor (40), any points earned in the coming weeks will have an even bigger affect on his average. One more week like this last one and he’ll crack the top 25.