Like everything we do, we put way too much thought and effort into something that is, quite frankly, trivial. Could we keep going down to Myrtle each year without knowing who performs the best on Par 5's? I suppose. Could we continue to hand out singles to "aspiring caddies" without ever learning who has the lowest average net score on courses with a total length of 6,500 yards and above? Sigh, I guess somehow we'd manage. And could we step onto the first tee without the knowledge that finishing the round with a sub 100 could potentially move you up five spots in the LBI rankings? No sir....that is where we have to draw the line!
And thus we established the Institute for Managing the Systematic Myrtle Ranking Theory or IMSMRT (see what I did there)...or just "Institute." Our primary function: Figure out a way to rank every golfer who ever competed in the LBI using a complicated, but not completely incomprehensible, point system - one that makes enough sense for people to understand, but still leaves room for people to argue over the results. We settled on three categories that I think do a really good job of gauging total performance; Overall Finish, Earnings, and Myrtle Ratio. Once again, none of this would be possible if not for Brett keeping the stats for the past 5 years. If you guys haven't bought him a shot of Seagram's 7 by now (Brett's all time favorite shot), you better buy him five this year (make sure he does them all in a row).
I'll quickly go over the point system, but I don't want to spend too much time here, since I'd much rather get into the results. If you glance over this next paragraph and your eyes go crossed and you start drooling, then I've done my job properly. Really you should just sit back and trust that everything is being handled by a professional (that's me). Points were awarded to each golfer based on rank, and number of golfers entered into the tournament that year (100 points for overall score, 50 points each for Earnings and Myrtle Ratio). So, for example in 2011 with 20 participants, each position in the Overall Finish cagagory was worth 5 points. Shea received 100 points for the overall leader, Tim 95, Hollandsworth 90, and so on. For the "Earnings" category, we looked at the prize money won during the mini-games (closest to the pin, skins, team) -- in this way, you're not just getting some loot for that closest to the pin prize, you're getting Myrtle Points too. Looking again at 2011, Shea was the overall money winner with $138, so that net him the full 50 points. Hollandsworth was right behind him with $124 which was rewarded with 47.5 Myrtle Points. Make sense?
Since we wanted to make this a LIFETIME RANKING, we needed to include all rounds from all years, but we also felt it was important to focus on at current performance. As such, we will be keeping the full point totals from the past 3 years, but then discounting everything else by 50% (we'll reassess this in a few years to see whether or not we want to let points expire after some point). We think this is a good rule for a lot of reasons, partially because these were the years when Moden won the LBI (I'm kidding, of course....maybe), but primarily because it allows new comers to get into the mix without having to fight 5 years worth of accumulated points. It's also a modified way of how they handle the world golf rankings, and like I said, we try to keep our shit legit.
Since we wanted to make this a LIFETIME RANKING, we needed to include all rounds from all years, but we also felt it was important to focus on at current performance. As such, we will be keeping the full point totals from the past 3 years, but then discounting everything else by 50% (we'll reassess this in a few years to see whether or not we want to let points expire after some point). We think this is a good rule for a lot of reasons, partially because these were the years when Moden won the LBI (I'm kidding, of course....maybe), but primarily because it allows new comers to get into the mix without having to fight 5 years worth of accumulated points. It's also a modified way of how they handle the world golf rankings, and like I said, we try to keep our shit legit.
So what is this mysterious Myrtle Ratio? I'm hoping to do a full post on this at some point before Myrtle, because this ratio is becoming my all time favorite stat. The Myrtle Ratio is the difference between the handicap you have established when you roll down to Myrtle, and the handicap computed from your scores while you are at Myrtle. Last year I rolled down with a 15.1 handicap, but over my 4 rounds my handicap was computed as 20.36 or 1.35 times more than my established handicap. Again, I want to do a full post on this because it's such a fun stat and really telling when it comes to Myrtle performance. For reference, 1.35 is right around the middle of the pack. The overall winner will tend to be right around 1.00, whereas we've seen a couple of people up around 2.00 (ouch).
Ok, have you bought in on the methodology? If not, that's too bad....this ain't no cheerocracy and I'm your cheer-tator (yup, I just brought it on). Without further delay (or text based rambling) I proudly present the LBI Rankings updated through the 2011 season (as with all of the Tableau charts, click on a golfer's name to see the annual and career details)!!
Pretty freakin' sweet, right? I know, I know you're probably still in shock seeing how high or (gulp) how low you've placed. Well for all those sitting near the bottom, have no fear - a top 5 finish goes a long way towards moving you up in the charts. Hell, by finishing 3rd last year Hollandsworth went from damn near the bottom (0 points awarded for DNF) all the way up to #13! Take a look at the data below to see how the points break down (total and by year).
So there you have it, LIFETIME MYRTLE RANKINGS. I won't always be putting those in ALL CAPS, but then again maybe I will because it's my blog and I do what I want. It should be interesting to see how things play out this year. Brett and Moden have been occupying the top spots for most of their careers, but Shea made a big leap last year after winning it all. Will we see the same old people in the top 5, or is this the year someone new breaks through? Is this the year Ciarlo makes his charge? Does CT, with only one finish outside of the top 5, finally win it all? After a year off, does Bos jump back into the mix? Does Rob learn from his first year and make some noise in his Sophomore season? So many questions.....which will be answered in LESS THAN A MONTH!
My nipples are hard just thinking about all this excitement!
~Saps
