PGA Tour rankings -- April 23, 2012

The Sports Xchange's PGA Tour rankings are selected by TSX Golf Staff, based on play in the 2011 and 2012 seasons, with more emphasis on recent results.

1. Luke Donald, England -- Having lost the No. 1 spot in the World Golf Rankings for the second time this season, Donald again will try to get it right back when he tees it up this week in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. When Rory McIlroy ended Luke's 40-week run atop the rankings by winning the Honda Classic to start the Florida Swing early this season, the Englishman took it right back in his next outing when he captured the Transitions Championship. ... Donald is playing in New Orleans for only the second time, but he took right to TPC Louisiana when he finished in a tie for eighth last year. He opened with a 4-under-par 68 and closed with a 69, finishing five strokes out of the playoff in which Bubba Watson defeated Webb Simpson. That was one of his 14 finishes in the top 10 last year, the most on the PGA Tour. ... Donald has had his struggles on the PGA Tour this season, other than his victory in the Transitions and a tie for sixth in the WGC-Cadillac Championship. Since winning the Tampa-area event, he has tied for 32nd in the Masters and tied for 37th in the RBC Heritage, and other than his two top-10s, he has finished outside the top 30 in the other five tournaments he has played. The biggest reason probably is his iron play -- he ranks 137th on the PGA Tour in greens in regulation at 61.67 percent. His short game remains solid. He ranks second in scrambling by getting up-and-down for par 68.12 percent of the time when missing the green and averages 28.40 putts per round.

2. Rory McIlroy, Northern Ireland -- A year ago, McIlroy skipped the Players Championship after Chubby Chandler, then his agent, called it "the ninth or 10th most important tournament in the world." When he joined the PGA Tour before this season, he said he would again play in what the PGA Tour would rather be called "The Fifth Major," and he made it official with a commitment last week. He has played at TPC Sawgrass only twice, in 2009 and 2010, failing to break the par of 72 in any of his four rounds while missing the cut both times. When he left two years ago, he said the Stadium Course simply does not fit his game. ... Rory is taking three weeks off before playing in the Wells Fargo Championship, the week before the Players. He will turn 23 on Friday at Quail Hollow, where he claimed the first of his three PGA Tour victories in 2010. McIlroy might enter the tournament as the No. 1 player in the World Golf Rankings, having taken over the spot last week without firing a shot after Luke Donald tied for 37th in the RBC Heritage. Donald could get it back this week in New Orleans. ... Whatever caused his 77-76 weekend at the Masters, which left him in a tie for 40th, McIlroy probably was overdue for an off week, ill-timed as it was. Before that, he had finished in the top five 11 times in his previous 12 tournaments, including victories in the UBS Hong Kong Open and the Honda Classic. The only time he didn't, he tied for 11th in the Dubai World Championship, where he was suffering from the effects of dengue fever.

3. Phil Mickelson, United States -- Mickelson was expected to make his return to the PGA Tour next week at the Wells Fargo Championship, and he made it official last week by committing to play in the tournament for the ninth time. He has a strong record at Quail Hollow even though he never has won, finishing in the top 10 in six of his previous eight appearances, including second behind Rory McIlroy two years ago. ... Lefty also made big news in Texas when he committed last week to play next month in the HP Byron Nelson Championship for the first time since 2007. He has played in the event at TPC Las Colinas on 13 previous occasions and won it by two strokes over Craig Perry in 1996. Lefty had a close relationship with Byron Nelson and will be on hand as the tournament celebrates the 100th anniversary of Nelson's birth. ... Mickelson is less than a month away from his induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Fla.; the ceremony is scheduled for the beginning of the week ahead of the Players Championship. Even with his induction imminent, he continues to add to his accomplishments, posting his 40th victory on the PGA Tour earlier this season at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Since he won't be 42 until June, Lefty figures to have them rewriting his resume at the Hall of Fame for years to come. He is on one of his better streaks since perhaps 2009, with four finishes in the top four in his last six tournaments.

4. Bubba Watson, United States -- It will be interesting to see how Bubba begins to deal with being a major champion when he returns to the PGA Tour on Thursday to defend his title at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans following a two-week whirlwind tour since winning the Masters. Bubba hit all the talk shows in New York and elsewhere in addition to playing in the Tim Tebow Celebrity Tournament at TPC Sawgrass, not to mention changing the diapers of his newly adopted 1-year-old son, Caleb, when he was at home. ... Watson won't be able to fly under the radar anymore when he shows up at tournaments, with media and other obligations taking up more of his time. This week he probably will be asked more about winning the Masters than his two-hole playoff victory over Webb Simpson a year ago at TPC Louisiana. Bubba overcame a three-stroke deficit in the final five holes of regulation, receiving a huge break when Simpson was assessed a one-stroke penalty after his ball was moved by the wind when he addressed it on the 15th hole. Watson holed a 12-foot birdie putt to stay alive on the first playoff hole and tapped in a winning three-footer for birdie after Simpson found a greenside bunker and could only make par on the second extra hole. ... Watson has finished in the top 20 in all of his eight tournaments this season and will have to avoid the type of letdown he had last year after winning in New Orleans -- he had only one top-20 finish in his last 12 events of the regular season.

5. Lee Westwood, England -- Even though he struggled to a 2-under-par 74 in the final round, Westwood successfully defended his title in the rain-delayed CIMB Indonesian Masters, winning by two strokes over Thaworn Wiratchant of Thailand. It was the 37th victory of his career around the world and the first this year after he won four times in 2011. The Englishman has won twice on the PGA Tour, at the 1998 Freeport-McDermott Classic and the 2010 St. Jude Classic. ... After making the long round trip to Indonesia, Westwood is taking one week off to recuperate and plans his PGA Tour return for the Wells Fargo Championship. Having rejoined the PGA Tour this season, he also is playing the following week in the Players Championship, which he skipped last year even though he has recorded three top-10 finishes at TPC Sawgrass, including a tie for fourth in 2010. ... The 39-year-old Westwood played the last 14 holes of the third round on Sunday morning at Royale Jakarta Golf Club, posting a 7-under-par 65 to take an eight-stroke lead into the final round. Playing 32 holes on the last day, he struggled in the afternoon with consecutive bogeys on the fifth and sixth holes and then again at the 13th and 14th. However, he finished with four consecutive pars to hold off Wiratchant, formerly No. 1 on the Asian Tour, who closed with a 67 that included birdies on the last two holes. Westwood, who started with rounds of 65-68, said he fought fatigue over the last six holes.

6. Steve Stricker, United States -- It's sometimes difficult to get Stricker out of Wisconsin, since he enjoys his time at home with his family so much, and that was proved earlier this season when he skipped the Northern Trust Open, which he won in 2010. He has played a judicious schedule this season, as he has in recent years after getting into his 40s, but he will be back on the PGA Tour this week to play in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. ... He will be playing in New Orleans for the 13th time but has not had all that much success in the tournament -- only two finishes in the top 10. Strick played the weekend in 67-64 at English Turn Golf and Country Club in 2000 to tie for fourth, two shots out of the playoff in which Carlos Franco defeated Blaine McCallister. In 2009 at TPC Louisiana, the current tournament venue, he posted three scores in the 60s, but a 1-over-par 73 in round two left him in a tie for seventh, three strokes behind his close pal and the winner, Jerry Kelly. ... Stricker has finished in the top 10 in three of the six tournaments he has played this season, including a victory in the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions. However, he has struggled in his last two events, tying for 36th in the Shell Houston Open and tying for 47th in the Masters, so it's time for him to turn things up a notch with the Players Championship and the U.S. Open on the horizon.

7. Hunter Mahan, United States -- After one more week off, Mahan will continue what is shaping up as a career year when he plays in the Wells Fargo Championship. The only two-time winner on the PGA Tour this season, he has finished in the top 25 in seven of his eight events in 2012, missing only when he tied for 42nd in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. ... Mahan said he took a new approach to playing in the majors when he backed off a bit on the intensity and tried to be more relaxed during the Masters. It seemed to work, for three rounds at least, and he was right in the mix before closing with a 2-over-par 74 that left him in a tie for 12th. However, it was much better than his missed cuts last year in the Masters, U.S. Open and the Open Championship before he tied for 19th in the PGA Championship. And he has proved that he can win against the strongest fields with titles in the 2010 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship earlier this year, so his best in the majors could be yet to come. ... Mahan told reporters at Augusta National that he still gets roasted by fans from time to time on Twitter for his chunked chip shot that led to him conceding the deciding match of the 2010 Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor to Graeme McDowell. He took that defeat hard but has gotten past it and is looking forward to getting a chance at redemption when the Ryder Cup is played again in September at Medinah.

8. Justin Rose, England -- Having already provided the makings of what could be a career year, Rose will return this week for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans after finishing in a tie for eighth at the Masters. The quality of the field in the WGC-Cadillac Championship has to make it the biggest title of his career, and by winning again he would equal 2010, when he captured the Memorial and the AT&T National. ... Rosy is playing in New Orleans for the seventh time and has yet to perform well at TPC Louisiana. His best result in the tournament was a tie for fifth in 2004, when he posted three rounds in the 60s and finished five strokes behind champion Vijay Singh. However, that came at English Turn Golf and Country Club. Since the event moved to TPC Louisiana, his best result was a tie for 17th in 2005, and he has missed the cut two of the last three years at the newer venue, where he has broken 70 only twice in 12 rounds. ... During his time off, Rose co-hosted the Morning Drive one day last week on the Golf Channel, whose studios are only a short drive from his home in Lake Nona, Fla., near Orlando. While on the program, he was asked about missing the cut in his first 21 tournaments after he turned pro following a tie for fourth in the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. He quipped that it was a good thing he was only 18 at the time and had the resilience of youth. He said that now, at the age of 32, it would be difficult to show up for No. 22.

9. Bill Haas, United States -- Having perhaps had a bit of a letdown since his thrilling playoff victory over Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley at the Northern Trust Open, Haas is in the midst of a three-week break before trying to get his season headed back in the right direction at the Wells Fargo Championship. Since that victory at Riviera, he has been outside the top 25 in his last five tournaments, including a missed cut at the RBC Heritage in his last outing. ... Haas' victory in the Los Angeles area event was the second in a span of six regular-season events -- he also won the Tour Championship in a playoff over Hunter Mahan to wrap up the FedEx Cup last September. That strong play continued into this season when he finished in the top 20 in four of his first five tournaments, but then came his recent tailspin. Quail Hollow might be exactly the place to get his game back on track because he will be playing in front of friends and family there and finished solo fourth in the tournament last year. ... A look at the numbers shows that the biggest dropoff in Haas' performance from last year has been in ball-striking. In the last two years, he has hit nearly 70 percent of the greens in regulation, while this season he is under 67 percent. At Harbour Town, he hit only 17 of 36 greens. Last year, he ranked fifth on the PGA Tour in total ball-striking, a combination of fairways and greens hits, but this season he is 26th. His putting numbers also are slightly worse, and in golf the little things can add up quickly.

10. Tiger Woods, United States -- When Woods wrote in his blog that he would be playing in consecutive events, the Wells Fargo Championship and the Players Championship, after taking three weeks off, he said he would put his clubs away for a while before getting back to work with instructor Sean Foley. Writing off his tie for 40th at the Masters as simply a bad week of ball-striking at the wrong time, he obviously hopes to play more like he did while winning at Bay Hill than he did in his worst appearance as a pro at Augusta National. ... The difference was more than simply in the numbers. Tiger seemed to be so relaxed while winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational, even seemingly unperturbed when he hit a ball out of bounds after a woman yelled during his backswing. However, he seemed to be uptight and on edge all week at Augusta, but that can happen when you don't know exactly where the ball is going. Still, attitude might have played a role, but we will never know if something was bothering him because Woods seldom tells us what he is thinking. ... In his blog, Woods also shared with his fans that the victory at Bay Hill was a little more meaningful because his children, Sam and Charlie, were able to root for him while watching the final round on television. He added that they when he showed them the trophy the following day, they were excited for about three seconds before they moved on to the next thing.

11. Keegan Bradley, United States -- It wasn't all bad, finishing in a tie for 27th in his first Masters, but Bradley was suitably humbled by the 5-over-par 77 he shot in the second round. Having had two weeks to regroup, he will return to the PGA Tour this week for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, hoping to get going in the right direction again after his finish at Augusta was his first out of the top 25 in 10 outings on the PGA Tour this season. ... Bradley also played at the TPC New Orleans last season as a rookie on the circuit, finishing in a tie for 26th and recording his best round of the week on Sunday, when he posted a 4-under-par 68. The tournament finished on the first day of May in 2011, and it was later in the month that he really got his season going with a playoff victory in the HP Byron Nelson Championship. When he captured the PGA Championship in another playoff later in the season in his first major championship appearance, he became a shoo-in for the PGA Tour's Rookie of the Year award. ... Even though the 25-year-old Bradley has not found the winner's circle this year, coming closest when he lost on the second playoff hole to Bill Haas at the Northern Trust Open, he has continued to play at a high level. He has made the cut in all 10 of his tournaments and placed in the top 25 nine times, including three finishes in the top 10.

12. Matt Kuchar, United States -- Starting the final round of the Valero Texas Open six strokes behind leader Ben Curtis, Kuchar had a chance to make a run at his first victory of the season and the fourth of his PGA Tour career. At the very least, he could have recorded his fifth top-10 finish of the year, but he closed with a 1-over-par 73 and slid seven spots down the leaderboard to a tie for 13th. ... Kooch apparently is going to take two weeks off ahead of the Players Championship. He is not in the field this week for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and has not committed to the Wells Fargo Championship after missing the cut at Quail Hollow in three of his last four appearances. He has played each of the last three weeks, including the grind that is the Masters, where he tied for third, and it's probably a good time for him to take a break. ... Kuchar at an up-and-down week at TPC San Antonio, opening with a 70 before coming back with an ugly 76 and then thrusting himself back into the picture with a brilliant 67 in the third round. He carded six birdies in that third round, including four in a stretch of seven holes on the back nine, but could manage only two birdies in the final round, at Nos. 7 and 18, where he holed a 21-foot putt from the fringe. Kooch struggled with his ball-striking in the final round, hitting only a little more than half the fairways and greens in regulation.

13. Dustin Johnson, United States -- There's still no word on when Johnson, who could not play in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Masters because of a nagging back injury, will be able to tee it up again. That's not good news with the Players Championship and the U.S. Open approaching, and if the injury persists, he could be looking at a lost season in what figured to be a prime year at the age of 27. ... It turns out that DJ aggravated a back injury that had bothered him since early in the year when he was lifting a jet ski. The first question is, why you would be tackling such a task if you already have an issue with your back? But Johnson's decision-making on and off the course has been questioned in the past. There was his DUI arrest in his hometown of Myrtle Beach, S.C., in 2009 and another brush with the law years ago when he was a teenager. Of course, everybody remembers the two-stroke penalty on the final hole of regulation when he grounded his club in a bunker at Whistling Straits, costing him a chance to win the PGA Championship. And he was hit with another two-stroke penalty for being late for his first-round tee time last year at the Northern Trust Open after caddy Bobby Brown gave him the wrong time. Then there was that fiasco as to whether he was dating Natalie Gulbis. ... Johnson has not played on the PGA Tour in six weeks, since tying for 35th in the WGC-Cadillac Championship, but he could be hoping to return for the Wells Fargo Championship next week.

14. Charl Schwartzel, South Africa -- Having played and traveled almost non-stop on the European Tour and the PGA Tour since the beginning of the year, Schwartzel is taking a month-long break at home with his family in South Africa. In his second season as a full-time member of the U.S. Tour, he will return in two weeks for the Players Championship, in which he tied for 26th last year coming off his victory in the Masters. ... Even though he has yet to win in 2012, Charl has played solid golf in his 10 events this season, posting four finishes in the top 10 and six in the top 20. His worst results came leading up to and including his defense of his title at Augusta National, where he tied for 50th after missing the cut in the Transitions Championship and the Shell Houston Open. Now that his year as reigning Masters champion, and being a first-time major winner, is over, perhaps he can relax and get back to playing his best golf. ... Schwartzel began the next phase of career by finishing solo sixth at the Maybank Malaysian Open the week after the Masters and is looking forward to the rest of the season, especially the majors. Last year after winning at Augusta, showed that victory was no fluke when he tied for ninth in the U.S. Open at Congressional, tied for 16th in the Open Championship at Royal St. George's and tied for 12th in the PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club.

15. Mark Wilson, United States -- Having already played 12 tournaments on the PGA Tour this season, Wilson is taking a well deserved two weeks off and will be back for the Wells Fargo Championship next week before heading to the Players Championship. He skipped the Valero Texas Open last week, no real surprise because he has missed the cut in three of his last four appearances in the tournament after finishing solo fourth in 2004. ... The 37-year-old Wilson labored on the PGA Tour for a decade before he earned his first victory, in the 2007 Honda Classic. However, in the last few years he has established himself as one of the better players in the game with four victories since late 2009. Mark was one of seven two-time winners on the PGA Tour last season, and his victory at the Humana Challenge early this year has made him one of four players who have won twice on the circuit since the beginning of last year. The others are Luke Donald, Steve Stricker and Bubba Watson -- pretty good company for a guy considered by most to be a journeyman. ... Wilson finished 11th on the regular-season FedEx Cup points list last season and is ninth this year. However, the list he is most interested in is the U.S. Ryder Cup points list. He ranks 11th -- the top eight earning automatic berths on the U.S. team for the matches in September at Medinah -- and he will need a strong summer to earn a spot in one of the team events for the first time.

16. Brandt Snedeker, United States -- After taking only one week off following the RBC Heritage, Snedeker will play for the 11th time this season when he tees it up on Thursday in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. He's trying to get back to his best golf of the year, which came when he finished in the top 10 four times in a span of five tournaments. That included the third victory of his PGA Tour career in the Farmers Insurance Open, where he beat Kyle Stanley in a playoff. He has not finished in the top 10 in four events since, but he did tie for 19th in the Masters before tying for 17th at Harbour Town. ... It appeared Snedeker might skip the New Orleans event, but he made a commitment to the tournament late last week. He might have taken so long to make up his mind because he has missed the cut in all four of his appearances in the tournament, three at the current venue, TPC Louisiana, and the other at English Turn Golf and Country Club in his first appearance in 2004. He has broken 70 in the tournament only twice, when he shot 1-under-par 69s in the first round in 2004 and in the second round last year. ... Thanks to his early season success, Snedeker ranks 10th in the FedEx Cup standings after finishing eighth last year, and he is in great position to make the U.S. Ryder Cup team for the first time, sitting at sixth in the standings -- the top eight automatically make the team.

17. Adam Scott, Australia -- Scott has played only four times this season and apparently will continue to follow the less-is-more schedule given that only two other tournaments are listed on the schedule page at adamscott.com. One is the Ballantine's Championship this week at Blackstone Golf Club in Seoul, South Korea, and he will return to the PGA Tour in two weeks for the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. ... The Aussie has not played in South Korea for several years and obviously is receiving a handsome appearance fee to play for the first time in the Ballantine's, which is co-sanctioned by the European Tour and the Asian Tour. However, he does have a strong record in Asia, having won the 2005 Singapore Open, the 2005 Johnnie Walker Classic in Beijing, the 2006 Singapore Open and the 2010 Barclays Singapore Open. While much of the field will come from the Asian Tour, also entered are Open champion Darren Clarke, Paul Casey, Ian Poulter and Miguel Angel Jimenez. ... Last week, Scott skipped the Valero Texas Open, a tournament he won in 2010 to help get his career going in the right direction again after he had not won in two years on the PGA Tour. Conventional wisdom would seem to indicate that he needs to get more competitive rounds under his belt with the busy summer season approaching, starting with the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in June. Scott closed with a brilliant 6-under-par 66 to tie for eighth in the Masters, but he seemed a bit rusty the rest of the week, especially with his long putter. He hopes to be strong from the start in Korea.

18. Webb Simpson, United States -- For a while, it appeared Simpson would not return this week to the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, site of his heartbreaking playoff loss to Bubba Watson last year after he was hit with a one-stroke penalty on the 15th hole in the final round. Simpson's ball was moved by the wind when he addressed it on the green, something that has happened to many players over the years, but this time the USGA and the R&A changed the rule after the season -- perhaps because it seemed to cost Simpson a victory. Now, if an outside force causes a ball to move, there is no penalty. ... Simpson has played in the tournament at TPC Louisiana three times previously, and his big performance last year came after he tied for 32nd in 2009 and shot 80-75--155 to miss the cut by a whopping 12 strokes in 2010. This time, he posted four rounds in the 60s and seemed to be headed for his first PGA Tour victory. Instead, he carded two bogeys down the stretch, including the one at No. 15, to wind up in the playoff. Both players birdied No. 18, which was used for both extra holes, but Simpson could not make birdie from a greenside bunker the second time around and Bubba won with a three-foot birdie putt. ... That was one of three runner-up finishes for Webb last year, but he finally broke through late in the season to win the Wyndham Championship and the Deutsche Bank Championship two weeks apart. He has three top-10s this season, but this is about where he got rolling last year.

19. Jason Day, Australia -- There still is no indication as to when Day will return from a tendon injury in his left foot and ankle, which forced him to withdraw from the Masters after seven holes in round two. His original schedule had him playing last week in the Valero Texas Open, but he told tournament officials after leaving Augusta that he would be unable to make it. The Aussie missed the cut in his only three previous appearances in the tournament, but all of those were at La Cantera, and he was looking forward to playing at TPC San Antonio, which became the tournament venue in 2010. ... Day, who took painkillers simply to make it to the first tee at Augusta, continues to undergo treatment and take medication to heal the injury. He said at Augusta National that doctors told him the injury would take two to six weeks to heal and that he was playing only because it was the first major of the year, in which he tied for second a year ago. He said it was difficult just to walk, and going 25 holes on the hilly fairways at Augusta could not have been easy. ... Day won't be at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans this week, and this is nearly a month since he sustained the injury during a training session the week before the Masters. The best-case scenario would seem to be a return next week at the Wells Fargo Championship, in which he tied for 22nd in his only appearance, in 2010.

20. Nick Watney, United States -- Watney is hoping that the memories from his first PGA Tour victory in the 2007 Zurich Classic of New Orleans will get him turned in the right direction this week. Coming off a season in which he won twice in one year on the PGA Tour for the first time, Watney has only one top-10 finish, a tie for ninth in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, and his best stroke-play performance was a tie for 12th in the Hynudai Tournament of Champions. ... Nick is playing for the seventh time in New Orleans, and in 2007 he posted four rounds in the 60s at the TPC Louisiana to record a three-stroke victory over Ken Duke for the first of his four PGA Tour victories. He also tied for 15th when the tournament was played at English Turn Golf and Country Club in 2006 and tied for 20th last year at TPC Louisiana. ... Watney seemed to be playing better when he posted rounds of even-par 72 or better in each of the first three days in the Masters and appeared to be headed for a solid finish before he closed with a 77 to tie for 37th. Even though he has not made any excuses, his slow start to the season might have had something to do with catching the flu at the Farmers Insurance Open, which caused him to miss the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Then he was bothered by sinus and ear infections at the Northern Trust Open. Whatever, he has yet to find his groove.

Others receiving consideration: Graeme McDowell, Northern Ireland; Ian Poulter, England; Louis Oosthuizen, South Africa; Martin Laird, Scotland; Zach Johnson, United States; Johnson Wagner, United States; Kyle Stanley, United States; Aaron Baddeley, Australia; Ben Crane, United States; K.J. Choi, South Korea; Robert Garrigus, United States; Ernie Els, South Africa; Jim Furyk, United States; Kevin Na, United States; Carl Pettersson, Sweden; Ben Curtis, United States; John Huh, United States.