After the Dubai World Championship, the last event on the 2009-2010 European Tour calendar, Lee Westwood remains in the driver's seat of the Kierk Index after earning 100 points from the tourney.  Robert Karlsson won the tournament and earned 160 points (150 pts. for the win and 10 points for shooting the best round at the beginning of the tournament).  Karlsson's victory moved him to 42nd place in this year's standings.  Ian Poulter's second place finish earned him 125 points and he was the biggest mover in this week's rankings, as he moved up five spots into fifteen place.  Alvaro Quiros earned 100 points for his third place finish and he now sits in 32nd place.

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I had my golf rankings up on this blog last year, but I didn't update them after the Deutsche Bank Championship.  For those that are unfamiliar, my rankings use a different formula than the World Golf Rankings and award players for their finishes as well as the quality of rounds they shoot during tournaments.  Only the PGA Tour and European Tour are used for the rankings.  A player's points from the previous year are halved and carried over to the next year.

Before the Dubai World Championships, Lee Westwood sits in the #1 spot, well ahead of the rest of the field.  Westwood has held the #1 spot since the MASTERS and his consistent performance in major championships this year is primarily why he occupies the top spot.

Last week's Hong Kong Open on the European Tour saw Ian Poulter emerge victorious and earned 50 points for the victory and 25 bonus points for shooting a 60 during the second round.  Additionally, Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell gained ground after their respective sixth and fifth place finishes.

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Steve Stricker, the current number two in the Kierk Index, earned 85 points following his victory at the Deutsche Bank Championship.  However, due to Tiger Wood's massive lead coming into the week, as well as his 63 on Sunday, Stricker was unable to climb into the #1 spot.  Stricker did earn an additional 35 bonus points during the week, though, for shooting a 63 in the first round and for having two of the best rounds of the tournament in rounds one and three.  He and Tiger have now distanced themselves from the rest of their peers on the ranking list.  On the European Tour, Alexander Noren's victory at the Omega European Masters earned him 40 points and moved him from 119th to 89th in the rankings.

Also, Dustin Johnson, Justin Leonard, and Kevin Na find there way into the top 25 as Y.E. Yang, Paul Casey, and Martin Kaymer drop out of it.

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Heath Slocum, last week's winner of the first FedEx Cup playoff event at the Barclays, earned 85 points and moved from 193rd in the rankings to 135th.  Not as large of a jump as he has now made in the FedEx Cup, but still sizeable considering that movement among the top 100 can be difficult from week to week.  Peter Hedblom, who captured his third European tour championship at the Johnnie Walker Championships at Gleneagles, earned 30 points for his victory and moved from 297th in the rankings to 245th.  Due to the high stakes of last week's tournament, the top 25 saw much more shakeup than last week.

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Most of the big name players last week sat out to rest up for the FedEx Cup playoffs.  As a result, the Wyndham Championship had only two top 15 players in the Official World Golf Rankings compete and Ryan Moore earned 40 points for his victory.  With no top 15 players in the field, Simon Dyson earned 30 points for his victory at the KLM Open on the European tour.  Also, without many of the top names competing, this week's standings saw very little shakeup, with the exception of Tim Clark, whose withdrawal from the Wyndham cost him three spots.

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The PGA Championship, being worth 200 points, saw several shakeups in the top 25.  There is a new golfer at number one and Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood made moves up the board based on some nice play over the weekend in the windy conditions at Hazeltine.  Y.E. Yang also cracks the top 25 for the first time this year.

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The Kierk Index is a ranking system that I devised back in 2000 to assess golfers performance across the world and was a fun way for me to follow the PGA and European tours.  Like the FedEx Cup and OWGR points systems, tournaments are worth a certain amount of points based on prestige.  A win in a major is worth 200, a win at the TOUR Championship, Dubai World Championship, and PLAYERS Championship is 150, a win in a WGC event is worth 100, FedEx Cup playoff event wins are worth 85, and the Mercedes and Volvo World Match Play wins are 80. Additionally, members of the U.S. Presidents Cup/Ryder Cup (and their European and International counterparts) can earn points based on how many matches they win at the event.

"Regular" tournaments that fall outside of this purview can be worth 30-50 points for a win. If none of the top 15 players in the OWGR are in the field, it is worth 30. If there is at least one it is worth 40 and if there are three or more it is worth 50. The scoring for a 50 point event would be as follows: 1st-50, 2nd-49, etc. Players can also earn "bonus" points during the year. Winning an event by at least 5 shots, winning an event by 10 shots, shooting a 63 or lower, shooting a 59 or lower, and shooting the low round of the day accumulate points. Conversely, golfers can earn negative points by shooting the worst round of the day, shooting an 80 or over, withdrawing from the tournament, or being disqualified. I quit doing this index after 2004, but am now redoing it.

From 2000-2004 when it was done, Tiger Woods won it 4 of 5 times. Vijay Singh in 2004 was the only player to stop Tiger's dominance. What I will do is at the end of the year, halve the points a golfer earned (rounding them up to the nearest number) and carry them over. After that season is completed, the halved points will be subtracted entirely and the golfer's total for that season alone will be halved and carried over.

This season, Geoff Ogilvy led early until Kenny Perry took over after the Masters. After the U.S. Open, Phil Mickelson briefly took the #1 spot, but Perry regained it after a win the following week and has held on ever since. Tiger jumped from 8th place to 3rd after his win last week. John Rollins, who won in Reno last week, sits at 131st in the standings with 209 pts.

The top 25 in the Kierk Index can be seen after the jump.

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