Aberdeen-born Michael

Sim is top-ranked

Scots pro earner

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Which Scots-born professional golfer has won the most money so far this season - and I know it's early days in the season?
Colin Montgomerie? Callum Macaulay? Paul Lawrie?
Wrong, wrong and wrong.
The answer is Aberdeen-born Australian Michael Sim, pictured above, who has never played golf professionally in Europe, let alone Scotland which was home to him until the age of seven when the Sim family emigrated to Perth, Western Australia.
Sim is also the highest-placed Scots-born player in the world professional rankings at No 122.
Sim, 24, now recovered from a lower back stress fracture which scuppered his debut season on the US PGA Tour, is the most successful player on the 2009 US Nationwide Tour - that's their No 2 circuit, with two victories and earnings of $241,417. One more Nationwide Tour win this season and, under the rules, he automatically gains promotion to the Big League.
And, on the US PGA Tour, our only Scots campaigner, Martin Laird is beginning to recover from a dreadfully slow start by making a couple of cuts. He has earned $77,317 and is No 179 on its money list.
On the European Tour, the most successful Scot is ex-Tartan Tour man David Drysdale from Dunbar. David has earned 227,123 Euros and is currently 48th on the money list.
Here's a glance at some statistical tables that make interesting but not necessarily heartening reading for those of us who would like to see Scots as a power on golf's world stage.
WORLD RANKINGS
1 Tiger Woods (US).
2 Phil Mickelson (US).
3 Sergio Garcia (Spain).
4 Geoff Ogilvy (Australia).
5 Kenny Perry (US)]
6 Paul Casey (England).
7 Padraig Harrington (Ireland).
8 Vijay Singh (Fiji).
9 Henrik Stenson (Sweden).

Scots' rankings:
122 Michael Sim.
148 Alastair Forsyth.
171 Colin Montgomerie.
173 Paul Lawrie.
219 David Drysdale.
233 Gary Orr.
253 Richie Ramsay.
288 Stephen Gallacher.
319 Martin Laird.
327 Marc Warren.
364 Callum Macaulay.
387 Steven O'Hara.
393 Andrew McArthur.
394 Andrew Coltart.

EUROPEAN TOUR
(Totals in Euros)
1 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 1,464,867.
2 Paul Casey (Eng) 1,198,431.
3 Angel Cabrera (Arg) 1,041,145.
4 Rory McIlroy (NIr) 938,234.
5 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 877,529.
6 Oliver Wilson (Eng) 860,495.
7 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano 617,271.
8 Thongchai Jaidee (Thai) 601,266.
9 Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 579,924.
10 Louis Oosthuisen (SAf) 573,434.
Scots' totals:
48 David Drysdale 227,123.
75 Andrew Coltart 141,098.
89 Callum Macaulay 117,028.
96 Colin Montgomerie 106,714.
104 Alastair Forsyth 95,569.
112 Paul Lawrie 88, 569.
145 Sandy Lyle 53,183.
147 Stephen Gallacher 52,434.
158 Alan McLean 43,900.
161 Scott Drummond 41,605.
182 Chris Doak 32,877.
193 Gary Orr 29,259.
209 Steven O'Hara 20,509.
213 Richie Ramsay 19,631.
234 Marc Warren 13,752.
294 Ross Bain 2,330.

US PGA TOUR
(Totals in dollars)
1 Phil Mickelson 3,217,165.
2 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 3,076
3 Sean O'Hair 2,963,842.
4 Kenny Perry 2,625,340.
5 Nick Watney 2,497,253.
6 Paul Casey 2,152,700.
7 Zach Johnson 1,979,151.
8 Steve Stricker 1,880,911.
9 Tiger Woods 1,872,213.
10 Brian Gay 1,690,375.
Selected totals:
23 Luke Donald (Eng) 1,206,576.
56 Ian Poulter (Eng) 632,718.
67 Padraig Harrington (Ire) 377,709.
100 Brian Davis (Eng) 316,293.
102 Greg Owen (Eng) 303,345.
122 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 247,267.
124 Justin Rose (Eng) 246,217.
179 Martin Laird (Sco) 77,347.
181 Sandy Lyle (Sco) 71,400.

NATIONWIDE TOUR
(totals in dollars)
1 Michael Sim (Sco) 241,417.
2 Garth Mulroy (SAf) 151,241.
3 Vance Veazey (US) 135, 277.
4 Alex Prugh (US) 127,303.
5 Alistair Presnell (US) 123,423.