Social media was lit up on Wednesday as PGA Tour pros irked their European Tour counterparts by commenting how easy it seems to accumulate world ranking points.
The storm was created by Kelly Kraft’s tweet, which read: ‘It’s amazing to me how fast some of the Asian Tour/Euro tour guys rise in the world golf rankings.’ For the record, Kraft is ranked 178 in the world and has only two top ten finishes in five years on the PGA Tour.
His tweet was quickly brought to the attention of his European Tour colleagues, who wasted little time in sharing their thoughts.
‘We look forward to seeing you come to Euro, Asia Japan and prove how easy it is,’ replied Matt Griffin. Kraft quickly hit back with: ‘I’d do just fine thanks…. you played in the WGC Mexico some how[sic]. How you do in that?’
Kraft’s observation is based on several factors, but primarily on the fact that the European Tour fields are weaker than those across the pond, but the European Tour, on occasion, offers more ranking points.
‘Let’s go play over there and then we will be in every major and WGC event the rest of our lives,’ tweeted Grayson Murray, more famous for potentially having a model caddy for him at The Masters, should he win the Shell Houston Open, than for his golf where he ranks 155th in the world.
‘Try it. I dare ya. Those guys are better than you think. Obviously, some get intimidated in USA, but on their turf they are,’ responded Aron Price. Murray’s comeback confirmed that he backed Kraft for stating that the ranking points are skewed.
Then entered the big guns, Thomas Pieters and South Korea’s Byeong Hun An. Pieters, a Ryder Cup star, tweeted Murray with: ‘GraysonMurray or you guys could just text that to each other, and not make a fool of yourself for tweeting nonsense.’
‘Before twitter & social media, some people were dumb privately, but not anymore,’ tweeted An, who now ranks 55th in the world, in response to one of Murray’s tweets. But he didn’t stop there, as him and Murray had a full go at each other. Read his timeline HERE!
In one of the many replies, PGA Tour member John Peterson (534th in the world) pointed to the fact that Europeans travel to play college golf in the US, but the same isn’t true of Americans attending college abroad. ‘I don’t remember getting any recruiting letters from European schools. I did play against a bunch of euro guys here tho,’ tweeted Peterson.
Lee Westwood, a former world number one, and a regular on both tours, probably summed up the debate best.
@jcorrigangolf @theweeman77 @ByeongHunAn this is brilliant! I have to drink sooo much vodka to get to this level!!!
— Lee Westwood (@WestwoodLee) March 30, 2017
Photo: Petri Oeschger/Sunshine Tour/Gallo Images
