Golf Global Cup 2011: Oriental Tigers in pursuit of the Masters

That Golf is one of the world’s elite sports is confirmed by some of the facts of the 2011 Golf Global Cup.

The ranking covers a relative handful of tournaments, the essential stuff of the sport: for the Men it’s the four majors (US and British Open, PGA Championship and Augusta Masters) plus the PGA, Asian and European Tour; for the Ladies, it’s the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the LPGA Championship and the US and British Opens.

“Only” 1248 GSN points were awarded in 2011, compared for example to 13104 in Athletics.

The number of countries scoring points is one of the lowest among GSN sports: only 15 in 2011, 3 less than 2010.

But the single factor that testifies to Golf’s elite status, at least at the international professional level, is that the winning country in 2011 cornered 34,7% of the points!

The USA won the 2011 Golf Global Cup handsomely, with 4 times as many points as Great Britain, second-placed ahead of Australia and the Oriental Tigers, South Korea and Taiwan.

The USA won the Men ranking ahead of GBR and the Oz, and the Ladies ahead of three Oriental Tigers: South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

Men Golfers in Stars & Stripes triumphed in the British Open (where they were only 3^rd in 2010), trailed GBR in the US Open in a curious reversal of roles, were surprisingly only third at the Augusta Masters, beaten by Australia and South Africa, won the PGA Championship handsomely and capped the season off by bagging the PGA Tour.

Pacific nations are clearly on the up in the Golf Global Cup ranking 2011: Australia up two places, Taiwan and Japan up three. But the USA were first and Great Britain second for the third time in three consecutive GSN years.