Mike Benham:
That's it, not to mention the fact Vijay has a good number of finishes outside the Top 25 while Tiger only has one in 2004.
Here is a story that ran in today's Sentinel. Pretty sure I'm the one that tipped off our columnist with an e-mail that Tiger was still on top in the Sagarin.
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By Steve Elling | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted September 8, 2004
It's sanctioned and certified now, of course.
Tiger Woods' reign as the No. 1 player in golf ended Monday when archrival Vijay Singh toppled him from the princely perch he'd occupied for five years atop the official world rankings.
Yet once again, in certain precincts of Florida, there needs to be a recount in terms of the tally on those fateful ballots.
The sport's second-most cited computer ranking system, compiled weekly by Orlando-based Golfweek magazine, somehow still lists Woods as No. 1 by a hair this week, despite the fact that Singh holds a whopping 6-to-1 margin in 2004 victories over our man from Isleworth.
As it turns out, the official world rankings are to Golfweek's rankings what Top-Flites are to Titleists. That is, they are both popular golf balls, but a cross-section cutaway indicates that they are of a wholly different construct. You thought golf was all about the final score? Who knew there were so many quasi-subjective variables with which to weigh a guy's performance?
The biggest difference between the two competing methodologies is that Golfweek's numbers are based on a rolling 12-month period, versus the two-year window of the far slower-to-change world rankings. Which is why Golfweek publisher Jim Nugent was a little surprised at how his rankings looked Tuesday morning.
"Wow," he said. "It does to a certain degree undermine what we've been saying about the one-year window being more of a reflection of how they are really playing."
Yes and no. Golfweek's rankings measure players based heavily on head-to-head play and performance against the total field. Thus, Singh's six wins don't mean as much if he has a few forgettable 30th-place tallies mixed in to dilute the totals. Woods, meanwhile, hasn't been winning much, but has been rolling up top-10 finishes almost every week.
Over the past 52 weeks, Woods is 11-9 in head-to-head meetings against Singh in events in which both were entered. In terms of their average finish over the past 12 months, Woods has finished in 10.6th place, while Singh logs in at 17.1, Golfweek deputy editor Jeff Babineau explained.
Singh has finished 20th or worse, or missed the cut, in eight events in 2004. Woods has 12 top-10 finishes this year and only once has finished outside the top 25 -- when he finished 46th as the four-time defending champion at the Bay Hill Invitational. So this clearly isn't a case of cooking the numbers in favor of the Orlando-based player.
"It's just a difference in the way we measure and weigh things," Babineau said.
No weigh? Way. There are wider variances elsewhere. Heathrow's Chris DiMarco is ranked 12th by Golfweek and 17th in the world rankings.
Actually, it was Golfweek that first anointed Singh as No. 1, formally affirming what most fans already knew in their gut, way back on March 29. King Singh held that spot until May 10, when Woods edged past him again -- despite the fact that Singh has since won three times and posted two other top-four finishes.
As they say in the computer trade, go figure.