OWGR tweak makes it more inclusive, smaller tours to benefit

By Rahul Banerji

Wednesday’s announcement by the Official World Golf Ranking, OWGR, governing board greatly widening the scope of its points distribution system will benefit players around the world.

Against an existing system of only the top finishes sharing available points, the largesse – and consequent gains for a wider field – stand to be much greater.

The changes, long debated and the 17^th amendment since the OWGR came into being back in 1986, was necessitated by the worldwide growth of professional golf tours that now exceed 20, against the six when it was launched.

Three years of work went into re-laying a framework that would grade players who were not even likely to face each other, but all plying their trade as professionals around the world.

From next August, players in a tournament will be graded on the basis of skill of the entire field against an existing system that looked mostly at the top 200, and largely ignored the rest.

Players will have a strokes gained world rating on the basis of scores over the last two years which will decide the number of points contributed to the event.

The points of all the players in the field will then decide the number of ranking points to be earned which will be on the same basis the prize purse is divided between all those making it to the weekend rounds.

OWGR statement

The Governing Board of Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) today announces enhancements to the Official World Golf Ranking. 

The updated system will incorporate modern statistical techniques which will allow all eligible players and events to be more accurately evaluated relative to each other.

Over the last three years, OWGR has coordinated an independent analysis of the Ranking and its system to ensure it is meeting its key objectives of publishing a transparent, credible and accurate ranking based on the relative performances of participating players. 

“The results of this analysis have led to the changes announced today, including distribution of Ranking Points to all players making the cut to provide greater differentiation of performances; and use of a Field Rating calculation based on a statistical evaluation of every player in the field, rather than just those in the field among the current Top-200 of the Ranking.

Major championships will continue to award 100 First Place Points, while the Players Championship will award 80. All other tournaments will award Ranking Points according to the strength and depth of their fields, with a maximum of 80 First Place Points.

“The Official World Golf Ranking owes a massive debt of gratitude to founders Mark H McCormack and Tony Greer, whose vision has done so much to shape the competitive landscape of men’s professional golf over the past 35 years”, said OWGR chairman Peter Dawson.

“Since 1986, the Tours eligible for inclusion have grown in number from 6 to 23 and the rankings have been continuously modified to accommodate this expansion and to improve accuracy.  We are confident the further enhancements announced today will best position OWGR for the years ahead.”

Following a 12-month notice period, implementation is set for the week ending August 14, 2022, at which point all future eligible tournaments will utilise the updated system. 

“There will be no recalculation of past events, meaning the impact of the new methodology will be gradual.”

Wider benefir

Dubai-based golf writer and keen student of the game, Joy Chakravarty tweeted at some length about the development. Reproduced here is a section relevant to the Asian Tour and in turn to India’s domestic tour, the PGTI.

“Earlier, an Asian Tour event with 14 IWGR, would award points only to players finishing inside the top 17. So as per the earlier OWGR calculations, a player who missed the cut was just as good as the player who was 18^th, as both got zero points,” Chakravarty noted.

The PGTI now awards OWGR points both in conjunction with the Asian Tour but also for events on its calendar from 2019 since it was included in the system the previous year.

With a wider distribution of OWGR points, the trickle-down effects are bound to benefit many more players than the system does at present.

Also read: PGTI schedule back on stream, starts with Telengana Open from Sept. 2