Surprisingly Tight Battle for Golf's No. 1 Ranking Heads to Shanghai

Golf's major championships are long gone, the Ryder Cup is over, Tiger Woods is no longer the world's No. 1 player and the offseason (all six weeks of it) is just around the corner.

What an odd time for the season to never be more interesting. Funny how this is working. (Almost as funny as the above photo of Tiger, Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer getting a recent Tai Chi lesson with swords in China.) The PGA Tour could hardly be farther out of sight or out of mind, but one of the year's most interesting tournament weeks is playing out at the World Golf Championship-HSBC Champions in Shanghai, China.

A little drama for the road.

Although Woods, winless in 2010, losing his No. 1 spot to Westwood after 281 consecutive weeks was a forgone conclusion, this week's unseating, nevertheless, drew a lot of mainstream attention. Now, coming immediately on the heels of the big shakeup, Westwood, Woods, No. 3 Kaymer and No. 4 and defending champ Mickelson are all in Shanghai with a chance to be No. 1 with a victory.

It marks the first time since 1997 that four golfers have entered an event with a chance to claim the No. 1 ranking.

---

---

The top four players in this week's rankings are separated by .463 points. That's the closest bunching at the top since June of 1997, when Woods, Greg Norman and Els each spent time at No. 1.

"As far as the emotions go, it is what it is," Woods said Monday in Japan, where he played a nine-hole event with Japanese star Ryo Ishikawa. "To become No. 1 you have to win and win a lot to maintain it. That's the way it goes."

There is a segment of golf predicting the end of Woods' era of domination. For the first time in his career he will finish the PGA Tour season without a victory. It's suggested that the intimidation factor he has long enjoyed is gone and opponents now relish the opportunity for battle.

The opposite line of thinking is that Woods spent most of 2010 with a lot more than golf on his mind and rarely on the practice range. Now his private life is at least more private, he has been working on rebuilding a swing and again seems hungry to compete.

"That's trivial," PGA Tour veteran Chris DiMarco said last week of Woods losing the No. 1 ranking. "Because he hasn't even cared about that, to tell you the truth.


"For years and years, if he doesn't win after eight weeks, it's 'Tiger's in a slump,' and then he comes back and wins five in a row. Until he doesn't win for two or three years in a row, you'll never see me writing him off."

What's interesting about the No. 1 ranking is that no one has really taken it from Woods. Westwood, 37 and still without a major title, has played sparingly since early August, nursing a leg injury. Mickelson has had numerous chances this year to take the top ranking he never has held, but didn't win again after the Masters.

Kaymer, the PGA Championship winner from Germany, may be playing the best golf at the moment, but remains a bit of a mystery as a spotlight performer.

So what may be the most intriguing week of the season will take place in China as the year comes to a close.

That pretty much sums up golf's 2010.

DOES ANYBODY READ ANYMORE?

The two-shot penalty that created bunker-gate and cost Dustin Johnson a chance to win the PGA Championship in August apparently didn't make much of an impact on other golfers.

Johnson admitted he didn't bother to read the local rules sheet that was available all week at Whistling Straits, and thus didn't know it was illegal to ground his club in a sandy area on the 72nd hole.

It only cost him a spot in a playoff.

Now Johnson is not alone in asking, "You mean I'm supposed to read those printed sheets that players are given ever week at every golf course they play?"

Both Colin Montgomerie, only the winning European Ryder Cup team captain, and PGA Tour player Ryuji Imada suffered costly penalty strokes because they paid no attention to local rules.

Montgomerie appeared to be headed to a playoff in Haikou, China, but was penalized two shots with three holes to play after having his caddie pull an advertising sign that was blocking a shot.

Imada, meanwhile, took a 26-shot penalty for a string of infractions recorded by inaccurately replacing his ball in lift, clean and place conditions.

Imada placed his ball within a club's length, as is required in PGA Tour events, but the local rule required the distance to be inside the length of the scorecard.

MENTIONABLES

* Golf's problem child John Daly insists he has not had a drink in two years but is hoping to soon launch his own brand, a mixture of lemonade, sweet tea and flavored vodka.

* Big Halloween costume success: The Tiger Woods golf outfit that featured a visor with a golf club in place, similar to the classic arrow through the head.

* Golf may be headed to the 2016 Olympic Games in Argentina, but neighboring country Brazil may not care. President Hugo Chavez says Venezuela's golf courses should be expropriated and used for other purposes.

" That's an injustice -- that someone should have the luxury of having I don't know how many hectares to play golf and drink whiskey and, next door, there's misery and children dying when there are landslides," Chavez said during his weekly television show.

* Former women's world No. 1 Lorena Ochoa, who announced her retirement last year, is considering a handful of LPGA tournament appearances next year, including perhaps a couple of majors.

"I don't think I will play full time but I would love to play maybe the Nabisco (Championship) or the Evian (Masters) or British Open," she said. "I will play some tournaments in the future. We want to start a family, my husband and I, (so) it depends on the timing. But I will play some tournaments for fun."

* Rod Spittle's Champions Tour victory Sunday in the AT&T Championship made him the 11th player in senior tour history to win as a Monday qualifier. Spittle, 55, who did not turn pro until turning 49, made a four-foot putt for par on the first playoff hole to defeat Jeff Sluman.