From thegolfchannel.com...MARANA, Ariz. – Only 17 Americans played in the Accenture Match Play Championship, the fewest in the event that began in 1999.
They posted a 13-4 record in the opening round Wednesday – and one of the losses came when Steve Stricker beat fellow American Dustin Johnson.
By contrast, the 20 Europeans in the field went 10-10, with Peter Hanson beating fellow Swede Robert Karlsson in the only match between Europeans.
Only 19 of the 47 international players won their first-round matches. The largest remaining international contingent is from England, with six players surviving.


Over the last few years, less and less Americans qualified for the field due to more emphasis by the World Golf Ranking system on other tours around the world, including European PGA, PGA Asia, Japan Tour. Does this process, while diversifying and globalizing the game, result in a level playing field? After watching yesterday, I noticed some non-PGA Tour players don't have the sharpness or talents despite their ranking. I would bet that if they join the US PGA Tour, they'd struggle due to the depth of the TOUR. Please chime in.

In short, Yes the World golf ranking system is flawed. I think if a person ie Tiger Woods can not play any golf for a 12 month period and still be ranked as the #1 player in the world there is something wrong. My question is how long will Tiger remain in the top 50 in World Rankings after he no longer plays golf. The wieght system with other tour is flawed as well but it is so complex I don't think it will ever be done correctly, but that's just my opinion.

Of course the system is flawed. US golfers are so far better than everybody else, they should hold all the spots from 1 to 500. And they shoould be entitled to that and not have to depend on actual performance.

Those posts in the past couple of days are relly getting on my nerves. Anybody ever realised how many of the European players play on the PGA tour on a regular basis and make cuts and top 20 or 30 finishes, especially in the "bigger" events, on a regular basis? So they now take those points that used to be taken by US journeymen pros in the past, giving THEM World Ranking points which had nothing to do with how good they actually were.
This is also exactly the reason, why Europe won the Ryder Cup so often as an underdog, and why the US won last time being the underdog. Because people only looked at the team's World Rankings, so everybody was surprised, how the "lower ranked" team could win.
The ranking system is at it is, and nobody kept Boo Weekley from making the cut in the "European" events in the Emirates, and nobody kept Anthony Kim from making cuts in the ""European" events in Asia or Australia.
Rant over

To an extent they are flawed for sure.
They are flawed just like NCAA Basketball rankings are. Look at the top ranked teams right now. And please take no offense hometown fan's, but Butler, Gonzaga Utah, BYU....these teams are ranked ahead of Georgetown? Syracuse? Any Big East Team or ACC team for that matter? They are not in the same world/class
Its the same with the PGA rankings. You have some really solid players playing in Asia and tours that are not the PGA, but since the competition is simply weaker (fact), the ones that play better get higher world rankings. And good for them! But do not let that confuse you in knowing who truly the better players are in the world. The ones playing every week against the best players all the time. Same as in NCAA Basketball rankings. Butler/BYU/Utah/Gonzaga are doing what they are suppose to do and win, but against competition that would not even be allowed in the Big East or ACC. The last place teams in the ACC and Big East will be at the top of the other conferences.

It took a little over an hour, but that train has arrived. For the record, my post is not anti-European. Harrington deserved all the accolades last year and his loss yesterday has to do more with his current mini-slump. It also needs to be noted that most of the Europeans in the top 50 play regularly in the US since most of the top tier events including the 3 Majors are here. My point is there are plenty of PGA Tour players (American or not) outside of the top 64 that have more game than some of the non-PGA Tour players in the field.

Another thing to consider is that most of the non-US players are playing after having just completed the Johnnie Walker in Perth, are not playing in their home country, etc. One of the reports stated that Poulter spent 72 hours on a plane this week. I doubt that is the best way to prep for a challenging tournament. Perhaps they could rotate the location of the WGC events to make them more representative of the 'W'.

hack...point taken. Counter point: although it is in the US, the site is new. No advantage for anyone in the field. FYI, Poulter had no trouble yesterday winning his match despite the so called jet lag.

They tried that and failed miserably. When they held the event in Australia in 2001, almost none of the top players showed. Stricker won the event over Pierre Fulke. I'm sure that final match was a real ratings bonanza. I certainly agree moving the WGC events around a bit would increase global exposure, but it would decrease the strength of field. The only way I could see it being successful is if they moved the match play to Europe the week after the Open Championship, like the AmEx was a few years ago. That way the entire field is already overseas and the players won't feel so "inconvenienced."

I agree with the others. Which tour is stronger? The Nationwide or the Japanese tour? I would say the Nationwide is a stronger tour but if you win on the Nationwide you get 14 points vs 16 on the Japanese tour. The Nationwide also has a deeper field and its harder to win. A player can get more top finishes easier on the Japanese tour or Asain Tour. There is a reason they play over there and not on the PGA Tour yet they (top ranked Asain players) are ranked far ahead of most PGA Tour players. The rankings end up getting a little skewed and you see some players like Brenden Jones get into the matchplay, No offense to Brenden Jones but he shouldnt be ranked 64th in the world IMO.

BINGO

18 David Toms, USA (65) 1.97 80.71 41 -12.66 38.09
19 D.J. Trahan, USA (66) 1.96 115.54 59 -13.68 26.90
20 Dudley Hart, USA (69) 1.94 77.72 40 -9.50 0.00
21 Chad Campbell, USA (70) 1.89 100.05 53 -15.95 6.43
22 Woody Austin, USA (72) 1.85 107.07 58 -22.08 5.77
23 J.B. Holmes, USA (75) 1.78 92.39 52 -13.22 14.70
24 Nick Watney, USA (78) 1.73 91.74 53 -9.05 53.40
25 Brandt Snedeker, USA (80)

Heck I would take all these players head to head over Brenden Jones.

FYI Ian Poulter is bionic and he'll be 2nd in the World Rankings soon, next to Tiger!

I would imagine his will be taken completely off the list when he retires. Similar to what happened with Annika when she retired from the LPGA Tour. Her name was completely removed from the ranking system after her last tournament.

That is disappointing. I'd like to think that most players would like to have the opportunity to win such a title. It seems that certain events should be a must attend unless you are injured. Imagine if the Yankees elected to not play the Mariners because it wasn't much of a game and it was just too much of an inconvenience...

While that is true that the course is new, I think there is some advantage to having travel from southern california or florida to play than coming from Australia, Europe, Asia, etc.

The traveling thing is not the point. The rankings are flawed. While all the people are great golfers in the world rankings, some are getting massive advantage playing on tours that are not the PGA and European tour. Playing on a weekly basis or at least one out of three tournaments playing with all the big guns out there and a deep field. Your ranking gets inflated playing well on the other tours. Good for them, but good luck to them when they need to play in the majors and in the important tournaments around the world.
Again, take world soccer for example. The U.S team at one point not long ago (within past 4 years) was ranked as high as 7th in the world I believe. Give or take a spot. Do you really think the US team is in the top 10 in the world? They are horrid. Yet, they play against teams all year that allow their winning percentage to be solid and hence a high world ranking. Again,,,good luck in the World Cup. Teams that dont even qualify for the World Cup around the world are better then the US team.
Same thing in golf