Why the (Official) World Golf Ranking has well and truly had its time
Once upon a time the Official World Golf Ranking served a valuable purpose. Sadly, it’s become a commercialised weapon of the PGA Tour as illustrated by LIV Golf’s unsuccessful attempt to have its players receive ranking points.
The impetus for a worldwide ranking system stemmed from the now R&A’s desire to issue invitations for the Open Championship to the most deserving golfers. A system was implemented to recognise leading players who had come to split their time between tours. In 1986 the Sony Ranking was born after being developed from sports agent Mark McCormack’s World Golf Rankings.
That year Greg Norman produced the greatest-ever season by an Australian male golfer at home and abroad, highlighted by an Open triumph at Turnberry among nine tournament victories. Norman’s performances in the Majors – registering the ‘Saturday Slam’ by leading all four through 54 holes – saw the Shark end the year as the world’s No.1-ranked golfer. Four state titles were pivotal in Norman’s ascendency and these performances were well rewarded with ranking points: Queensland Open (12 points), New South Wales Open (20), South Australian Open (12) and West Australian Open (16).
PGA Tour of Australasia members benefitted from the Sony Ranking. By September 1992, Australia had six golfers inside the world’s top 30: Norman (No.7), Rodger Davis (No.18), Ian Baker-Finch (No.20), Craig Parry (No.24), Steve Elkington (No.27), Peter Senior (No.30).
Alas, the current OWGR heavily favours the PGA Tour at the expense of Australia and other international circuits. The WA Open is an example of the disparity. Established in 1913, it has been a staple of the PGA Tour of Australasia. This year Simon Hawkes produced a masterful display to claim the $31,500 winner’s purse. But in a sign of the times, Hawkes received a paltry 1.13 ranking points. By comparison, Luke List collected 28.92 points for winning the Sanderson Farms Championships on the PGA Tour while Australian Lucas Herbert received 1.27 points for a T-28.
Elsewhere that week, Matt Fitzpatrick earned 26.12 points for capturing the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews. Paul Barjon received 10.14 points for triumphing in the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. Over on the Japan Golf Tour, Yuki Inamori picked up 4.40 points for his victory in the inaugural ACN Championship Golf Tournament while Jeongwoo Ham got 3.36 points on the KPGA Korean Tour.
In a sad indictment of the OWGR, Adrian Meronk’s sensational victory in last year’s Australian Open acquired a relatively meagre 10.26 points for lifting the Stonehaven Cup. A tie for 10th at our Open netted just 1.15 points. So apart from a juicy appearance fee, why would a top-30 player risk competing in Australia when in all likelihood he would see his ranking suffer without a top-three finish?
The ramifications of downgrading the points awarded to Australian/New Zealand tournaments also appears to have had a devastating impact upon local professionals. They appear to be suffering from an inferiority complex on the international stage as they languish in the depths of the OWGR. Fewer Australians are advancing through qualifying schools in America and Europe. Meanwhile, the Australian presence on both the PGA Tour and secondary Korn Ferry Tour has dwindled.
So how did it come to this? On X (formerly Twitter), Phil Mickelson shed some light on the bias surrounding the OWGR by opining about why LIV Golf was denied ranking points:
“Why? 1) it’s a monopoly run by all the governing bodies 2) the PGA Tour tv contract is based on owgr criteria for them to get all their money 3) they would lose leverage in negotiations if LIV got points 4) last but not least, Tour has BORROWED against the tv deal! If they don’t hit their benchmarks and don’t get all their tv money (from CBS :) they will have an immediate capital call.”
With commercial interests affecting the Official World Golf Ranking, it’s starting to resemble an Irrelevant World Golf Ranking (IWGR).
GETTY IMAGES: Peter Dazeley
