2011: Which Horse to Back? The West Side Story - Part 2
Another strong contender for the throne is Jim Furyk; a player known for playing top level and for his unique, looping golf swing. The golfer, affectionately known as “The Grinder”, currently ranks Number five on the World rankings
list but can he make the jump to Number One?
The golfer’s game in 2010 came as somewhat of a surprise to the world. Furyk had been winless since 2007, when out of nowhere he won the Chevron World Challenge in 2009. This seems to have been the turning point of his career as
he started 2010 exactly where he had left 2009, on a winning streak.
He won the Transitions Championship and the Verizon Heritage at Harbour Town, but missed the cut in the Masters. Yes, he was having a good year and he did win two events; however, his performance could be called anything but steady.
It seems though that luck was on his side and the golfer managed to squeeze into the FedEx Cup line up and went on to win it. This achievement made Furyk a subject of global focus this year.
Perhaps what he lacks is a little ambition as far as the rankings are concerned. The player admits to focusing on his game, the leader board and his position in each round. However, what he does not focus on is the Official World
Rankings list and his place on it. "I've never worried about rankings," he says.
Despite his mostly nonchalant attitude towards the rankings, deep down Furyk is like any other athlete. He wants to excel at the game he is passionate about and be recognized for the amount of work and talent it takes to be good
at it.
"It would be cool just to say one day, even for a week, I was ranked No. 1 in the world," Furyk said. "That's my one exception to the rule for world rankings. It would be cool to say that." What we know
for sure is that this dream is going to remain just a dream. That is unless the player sits down to do some self-reflection and comes up with a winning strategy while chasing this goal with single-minded devotion.
No one expects the rankings to be very stable these coming years. The reason being that all the top players at the moment lack the X-factor in their game that Tiger Woods had possessed. These players stand at a relatively equal
footing at the moment and the number one position is there for anyone to take."In the past, Tiger had such a big lead (in the rankings) that it didn't matter how well you played, you couldn't catch him," says Furyk. "... It wasn't possible.
"Now, those numbers are so close that there are probably five or six guys that legitimately sometime during this year could be ranked No. 1."
If the World’s Number Six, Furyk is a possible candidate for the top slot; then why not Number Seven, Steve Stricker too?
The American pro-golfer is known for his smooth and simple stroke play and extraordinary putting touch. Steve went through a slump in his career after his initial success in the game. When he had just started, he finished fourth
on the PGA Tour’s money list in 1996 and after that he just lost all his momentum. It took him 12 years to recover and in 2007, he was inducted into the Wisconsin Golf Association’s Hall of Fame for the comeback of the year.
Ever since then Stricker has been excelling at the game and has a number of trophies as proof.
The World rankings have started looking like a free for all buffet, rather than an exclusive club for the best players in the world. It looks all the top ten players are going to get their shot at being number one this coming season,
albeit for very short amount of time.
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