Golfers happy to play numbers game at Sawgrass

In sports, you either win or you don't - a rigid bottom line underlying the "what have you done for us lately" attitude exemplified by the criticism aimed at NBA star Kevin Durant days before the formal announcement this week of his Most Valuable Player award.

The world golf rankings, with a two-year rolling points system, is the rare perch offering athletes a place to rest on their laurels. Nine months have passed since top-ranked Tiger Woods last visited the winner's circle.

In that time, Jimmy Walker and Patrick Reed each have collected three titles on the PGA Tour. Neither has cracked the top 10; Walker is No. 22, two spots ahead of Reed.

Eight weeks have passed since Woods' last competitive round before he was sidelined with a back injury. Eight players have notched victories on the PGA Tour and five on the European Tour. Only two, Bubba Watson and Matt Kuchar, appear in this week's top 10, which includes six players, in addition to Woods, who are winless in 2014.

At the Players Championship this week, the fourth-ranked Watson, in his first start since his Masters victory, and the fifth-ranked Kuchar join number two Adam Scott and number three Henrik Stenson as players who can take over the top spot from Woods, the defending champion who wrote on his blog this week that he was hopeful of a summer return.

The way the rankings are calculated, if Scott had joined Woods on the sidelines this week, he would have been assured of passing Woods in next week’s standings. Informed of the quirk in the calculations, Scott said, “See you later, guys.”

He was kidding, but his circumstance raises this question: If playing is a potential roadblock to number one is professional golf on the right rankings path?

“With tours all around the world, people playing everywhere and awarding fair points for everything, I think they have come up with the best they possibly can,” Scott said, “and they have been fairly accurate over the years.”

The job of slotting players falls to a world ranking governing board, which consists of one representative each from the PGA Tour, the European Tour, the alliance of international PGA Tours and the four majors.

Golf has to make a single serving from different cups of alphabet soup because there is no world tour, as exists in tennis, for instance. The Association of Tennis Professionals settled on a 52-week rolling system after experimenting more than a decade ago with a calendar-year points race similar to what is in place in Formula One racing.

The yearlong system creates a heightened sense of urgency for players defending points and more accurately mirrors what the fans are seeing on the court. Rory McIlroy, whose fiancee is the tennis player Caroline Wozniacki, said: "You could argue that if you wanted to make them more current you could go the way tennis is, where it's a one-year system.

“But then, if it’s one year, all you’re thinking about is the ranking, because you’ve so many points to defend this week and that week. And believe me, I know.”

McIlroy rose to number one in 2012 and fell out of the top 10 last week for the first time in more than three years. “I think some people, especially in sports, we have short memories, and you’re thinking, ‘How is that guy still there?’ he said.

“But, ‘Oh, hold on a minute - 18 months ago he won one of the biggest tournaments we have.’ So I think it works pretty well. If you look at it, it is pretty current.”

Scott probably needs a top-16 finish to become the second Australian after Greg Norman to reach number one. Stenson, the reigning champion of the FedEx Cup and the Race to Dubai, probably needs a top-six finish. Watson, who won his second Masters last month, needs a victory or a solo second, and Kuchar, who has eight top 10s in 11 starts this season, must win.

"We've seen Phil Mickelson, who is arguably top-five best of all time, and he's never been number one," Watson said. "That would just show me that the rankings are kind of messed up if Bubba Watson could be number one and Phil Mickelson has never been number one."

Watson, a two-time winner in 2014, has six career tour victories, including two majors. Mickelson has 42 tour titles, including five majors, and four international victories.

He has risen as high as two, most recently last August. Mickelson called the rankings fair. Referring to Watson, he added: “He’s probably missing that I played Tiger at his best. I played against Tiger for years when he was at his absolute best.”

Woods has spent a total of 682 weeks at number one since his first ascent in 1997, his shadow blocking out everyone else’s view of the summit, perhaps so much so that some of his competitors have not even perceived it as a target.

Scott said he did not know he would have been better off, mathematically speaking, staying at home if he wanted to reach number one. Not that it would have made any difference. “Obviously, playing the Players means more to me than sitting at home just to get to a number one world ranking,” he said. He added, “I would like to win to go to number one.”

New York Times service