Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson Will Face Off for No. 1 at The Memorial

The Memorial looks to be the next head-to-head matchup in the story everyone loves: Can Phil Mickelson unseat Tiger Woods as No. 1?

Both have committed to Jack Nicklaus's tournament, and depending on how Mickelson does this week at Crowne Plaza/Colonial, he could go into Columbus as the No. 1 in the world, with Woods as No. 2.

It all depends on Mickelson’s finish this week—and a bunch of calculations that are done by the “great and powerful Oz.”

You remember the great and powerful Oz, the little guy with the big loudspeaker who stood behind a curtain made giant whooshing sounds, and yelled to frighten anyone who asked questions?

Well, somewhere we’ve got an Oz of Rankings, and there’s no way to check what is going on.

The curtain is still drawn and he’s huffing and puffing and yelling.

We asked the World Golf Rankings people for some clarity on what Mickelson would have to do to move into the No. 1 slot. We received no answer.

Here’s the status: Mickelson’s now at 404.17 total points with 42 tournaments, for an average of 9.62.

Woods has 423.87 points with 40 tournaments and an average of 10.60.

If playing in Crowne Plaza/Colonial gives Mickelson 43 tournaments, he will need 456.23 total points to become No.1. If it’s 42, then he only needs 445.62.

We have no idea what the points will be for Crowne Plaza/Colonial.

Last week’s BMW PGA in Europe gave the winner 64 points, while the HP Byron Nelson was only worth 38 to Jason Day.

We have no idea if Mickelson will have 42 or 43 tournaments at the end of the week. So there is no way to anticipate how many points, how many tournaments, or what the score will be by the end of the week. 

We don’t know how many points he or Woods will lose at the end of this week based on points that are devalued over the two-year World Golf Ranking period. It’s a mess.

All we know for sure is Mickelson is 19 points and change from overtaking Woods on total points. But 19 points isn’t enough to overtake the average. That shows a terrible disparity in the current system.

You could have two No. 1s. 

Here’s the best explanation of what will happen, and if you understand this, get your friends to nominate you for a Nobel prize in mathematics:

“The full value of a tournament holds for 13 weeks, but from then on it is reduced in equal weekly increments over the remainder of the two year period, in order to give priority to recent form. The player's adjusted points are then totalled, and this total is divided by the number of ranking tournaments in which he has participated over the previous two years, subject to a minimum denominator of 40 tournaments.” (Wikipedia)

Huh?

That means what? What numbers can be associated with this explanation?

Here’s the absolute worst part of this system: Instead of money lists, the rankings are now used to determine who gets into majors and into the World Golf Championships. They have determined who was exempt into the US Open. Who got into The Masters. And they will factor into who gets to play in the Olympics in a few years.

So isn’t it time we got a system that wasn’t a secret and was something that we could all understand?

That way we will actually KNOW who’s on first.