"If we just prepared it on the points won so far this year Woods would not be in the top 50"

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The European Tour's statistics expert Ian Barker defended the World Ranking after Butch Harmon criticized the elevation of Lee Westwood to the top spot.

"If we just prepared it on the points won so far this year Woods would not be in the top 50 and Martin Kaymer would be comfortably the world number one," Barker, the European Tour's director of information services, told Reuters.

"Anyway, Butch may well have his wish on Sunday because Martin will go to number one if he comes second in Valderrama."

“To become No. 1 you have to win and win a lot to maintain it. That’s the way it goes.”

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That's Tiger sounding the least beat concerned about losing the No. 1 world ranking. It helps when you've won 14 majors.

“As far as the world ranking is concerned, yes, I’m not ranked No. 1 in the world,” Woods said Monday. “In order to do that you have to win and I didn’t win this year.”

Though I'm not sure this has proven to be accurate, but we'll chalk it up to Tiger sticking to diplomacy:

“As far as the emotions go, it is what it is,” Woods said. “To become No. 1 you have to win and win a lot to maintain it. That’s the way it goes.”

Lee Westwood won once this year at Memphis. Martin Kaymer has won four times, including a major.

"The IGF could’ve instituted a 36-hole cut instead of shortening the tournament."

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Sean Martin takes issue with the lack of an on-the-spot call by the International Golf Federation to prevent a virtual washout day of weekend World Amateur Team Championship golf, but what really scares me about this episode is that it's precisely the kind of thing that they use to justify the dead-on-arrival 72- hole individual stroke play format for the Olympics.

There’s nothing the IGF can do about the weather. But its insistence on emphasizing participation over competition in a tournament billed as a “world championship” has frustrated many players and coaches.

“I’m an idiot."

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At least Ryuji Imada was honest about his inability to read the local rule sheet at the Mission Hills Star Trophy, costing him 26 penalty strokes and a chance at the lead. Andrew Both reports:

Due to the soft state of the Blackstone course, players were allowed to lift, clean and place their balls. Imada assumed this meant within one club length of the original position, as is standard procedure on the PGA Tour.

However, the European and Asian Tours use the length of one scorecard as a measurement. It wasn’t until the 12th hole that fellow competitor Danny Lee noticed Imada was breaking the rule and informed him.

Better late than never!

This is fun too:

Imada wasn’t the only player to screw up. Nick Faldo was disqualified for picking up his ball after missing a putt at the eighth hole.

Evidently, he forgot that the pro-celebrity format includes a professional only competition. He didn’t realize the mistake until after teeing off at the next hole by which time it was too late to rectify.