It’s no surprise that Rory McIlroy is talking up the importance of golf’s world rankings.
Firstly, he’s been at the top recently and has the chance of getting back there on Sunday.
So no wonder he “cares about it” as he put it this week.
And secondly, it’s one of the key battlegrounds in the PGA Tour v LIV Golf power struggle and we all know that Rory has taken on the role of the establishment flagbearer over the last year.
When you’re involved in professional sport, they do matter.
It’s impossible to argue otherwise.
Qualification, funding and numerous other factors come in to play when it’s your day job.
And, of course, there’s the prestige of the ‘World Number One’ title.
I can’t say that I was seeking to find out if we’d got there after our Olympic gold but it was nice to find out we had it.
There had been an eight-year gap.
But I also know that in curling – as with many other sports – it can be a false indicator of who’s the best.
Grand slam events play a big part in curling but it’s the World and Olympic golds we all want.
In golf, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood will always have ‘number one’ on their CV but I bet they’d swap that and every other tournament they’d won to be called a ‘major champion’.
Do you think luke Donald would swap his time at number one for a major win, I think he would #noonewillremember
— Lee day (@Leroypro1979) February 16, 2019
Tennis would be the same.
And, in rugby, Ireland will be revelling in their top of the world status just now but in the back of their minds they’ll be thinking that the likes of New Zealand won’t care as long as they peak at the summer World Cup.
Only in golf, though, do you have such a big discrepancy between who is playing well and how that is reflected in the rankings.
Dustin Johnson dropping out of the top 50 and Bryson DeChambeau falling out of the top 100 is a result of career decisions they made to switch to LIV.
But, whichever side of the fence you’re on, it doesn’t help the general public get a grip on who is the best.
It always felt that the four big championships were the be all and end all when it came to the ‘greatest’ debate – whether that’s in the calendar year or of all time.
Until golf finds a way of factoring in what the LIV players are doing then that’s going to be even more true.
It was nice to pop in at the Scottish Curling Championships on Saturday and give a little talk.
On the ice, there were certainly no surprises in terms of who won the two titles.
Rebecca Morrison’s team were as comfortable as they could have wished for all week and nobody came close to pushing them really.
Team Mouat winning the men’s was no surprise either.
Great final @dumfriesicebowl as Euro Champs @TeamMouat claim narrow 7-6 win to claim their 4th @scottishcurling title #curling #SCC2023 pic.twitter.com/WXUVoDR1AB
— British Curling (@BritishCurling) February 11, 2023
As in the ladies, they also didn’t drop a game.
But they had it much tougher in the final against Team Craik, who have got a really strong junior pedigree.
It will be interesting to see what opportunities they get moving forward.
Beating Team Whyte in the semi-final and then taking arguably the best team in the world to the last end is a good achievement in itself.
Scottish men’s curling is in a very good place just now.
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