Official World Golf Ranking

The Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR): Can anyone tell me how this system works?

Let'€™s first look at why the OWGR is so important.

1. It gets you in the World Championship tournaments, which are all guaranteed events, meaning everyone who shows up and finishes gets paid, gets more world points, FedEx points etc.

2nd. Many of the majors and PGA Tour Invitational tournaments use this list as one of the primary ways to get invitations.

So get in the top 100 on the OWGR and you are in good company and will get in many tournaments.

The higher you go the better it gets, with more sponsor contracts, and likely at higher $$$$$.

If you spent any time watching the Accenture World Match Play Championship last week, you would have heard that question asked and comments made by a number of the, '€œin the know'€ announcers.

The reason for asking that question is that the 64 man field is made up of the top players in the official golf world ranking system.

This year numbers 1 '€“ 64 were there, and we certainly new number 1 was there because as soon as Tiger Woods announced he was playing, it made world wide sports news and even on the network nightly news broadcasts.

This was great, as it gave tremendous exposure to the tournament and golf.

So, back to the why are golfers and even announcers asking the question as to how the world ranking is figured out?

Does anybody have a clue as to what or how the formula works?

These questions are asked because golfers and announcers, that are quite up to date and follow golf seriously, and feel they know the top world players are having a hard time figuring out why so many foreign players, playing on the foreign tours, that are basically unknown, are ranked so high in the world rankings.

And conversely, why are so many really good US PGA Tour players, even with wins in the past 2 years, were not in the top 64 and thus in the World Match Play.

I heard Charlie Reimer and Alex Miceli on The Golf Channel show, '€œThe Advantage,'€ discuss this very question.

Charlie actually said that he took six courses in accounting at Georgia Tech and he has no clue as to how the world rankings are figured.

So, basically it seems no one really knows for sure how the rankings are figured out.

Let me now give you some idea and explanation, a foggy one, as best of what little I know and have heard from the players out on tour, the media and anyone who has an interest and cares, who are also caught in the same fog.

The Official World Golf Ranking List (OWGR) is found in the stats section on www.pgatour.com.

I looked everywhere to find the formula and was unsuccessful.

I guess it is top secret and that is why, from announcers to press to fans and even to the players, everyone is clueless.

When you look at the list, the column headings across the top read:

1. Rank this week
2. Rank last week
3. Player
4. Events
5. Avg Points
6. Total Points
7. Points Lost
8. Points Gained.

The key number that determines your rank is the 4th column of Avg (average) Points.

Tiger Woods, ranked #1 is 9.44, and Sergio Garcia, ranked 2 is 7.63.

Brendan Jones the 64th ranked player in the match play is as of Monday, March 1, the day after the tournament now # 65, losing a spot, and his Average is now 1.98.

My son, D.J. is # 66, is the same he was last week and his Average is 1.96.

So, as you see, as you get down the list, the Average Points get quite close and sometimes there are ties.

The next key number is column 4, the Events.

The OWGR are based on a 2 year revolving schedule, and every week, usually by Tuesday morning, the rankings are refigured. Somehow, whatever the formula is, there is a number that is reached and it is divided by the number of events to get the 5th column '€œAVERAGE POINTS,'€ which then determines the player'€™s rank.

This divisor of the number of events is why the last two columns of points lost and points gained seem to come into play.

What this means is that the lost points are what the player received in last year'€™s event, and points gained are what he receives for his finish in this year'€™s event.

So, if a player finished better this year than last year, he likely will go up in the rankings, which, in this case, his ranking number is actually lower.

Finish worse and you likely go higher.

This year, Tiger was the defending Champion and was ousted in the second round.

He lost -105.61 points and gained +4.42 and stayed at #1 which is obvious by the fact he had such a big lead over #2 Sergio Garcia.

Geoff Ogilvy, the winner lost -34.23 and gained + 128.49 and moved from 8th to 4th in the world.

Stewart Cink, the runner-up last year to Tiger, finished 3rd yesterday and lost -34.34 and gained +34.53 and moved from 22nd last week to 18th this week.

Now, explain this to me if anyone of you can figure this out.

Stewart Cink finished 1 spot lower than last year but gained +.19 points and moved up 4 spots.

What math is being used here?

It certainly doesn'€™t seem to go by what I learned in school.

Let'€™s look at one other odd/weird and foggy issue of the OWGR.

My son, D.J. was ranked last week and after the last qualifying tournament, Pebble Beach at #66, thus missing the field by 2 spots.

DJ did not play this year, as well as last year, and he also skipped the Mexico tournament both years so he had no activity for this week.

Yet, DJ lost -15.39 points and gained +26.90 and stayed the same rank at 66.

Now, let'€™s get really down and crazy with this OWGR list.

A player can skip a tournament he played last year and have his ranking change for the better that is going up.

'€œHOW,'€ YOU ASK?

It is simple.

His event divisor went down, so with a smaller divisor the total points go up and so does the ranking.

Now, this is where it really gets crazy.

All the tournaments on the PGA Tour after the Tour Championship, called the '€œFall Series,'€ and tournaments opposite majors, are all ranked as weaker fields and thus have a lower ratio or whatever the OWGR uses. A player (especially a high ranked one) who plays in a tournament ranked as a lower quality of field event can actually play well and loose, that is, his ranking number goes up.

Last year, the fall series had very few if likely no players with An OWGR in the top 50.

These tournaments were also not overrun with those on the OWGR ranked from 51 to 75.

Why, you might ask, especially when the money being played for was still real good.

Let me explain as best I can.

At the PGA Championship last year at Oakland Hills, while having breakfast or lunch with DJ and other players, I heard them discussing the problem of playing the fall series.

A number of players that were climbing the ladder of the OWGR were concerned about loosing ground by competing and even making the cut. A few had played last year, made the cut and even finished quite high and lost a few spots. Some also made the cut, finished, say in the 30'€™s and higher, and lost a lot of spots.

How can that be when the PGA Tour is suppose to be the best tour in the world, and at worst, with a weak field it can'€™t be that bad to finish well and loose spots.

Case in point, DJ was ranked 72 after the 08 Tour Championship, if my memory serves me well.

He decided from the PGA conversations to not play any of the fall series, like most of the top 75 ranked players.

This fared great for all the pros needing to make some money to climb into the top 125 on the PGA Tour ranking to keep their card and skip Q school.

Well, with DJ skipping all the fall in which, I believe he played 3 times in 07, his events divisor number dropped by 3 and so his OWGR rose to 68.

It eventually floated up a little, before 09 started.

But, this year he has 6 starts, 6 cuts made with 2 top 10'€™s (both 6th place) and 4 top 25'€s and he only rose to 66.

My take on the OWGR as best I can figure it out is this.

Since the ranking seems to reward a lower events played number, a player needs to keep his number of events low.

This is bad because it causes or even forces players to play less, which is not good for the game and for the tournaments.

Another big issue to get higher in the ranking and stay there is making cuts.

Missing the cut, even when playing a limited schedule, really hurts the ranking.

There is a lot of talk from all facets of the golf world about the complexity and obscurity of the OWGR formula.

It seems that to get the players, the media, the announcers and the public to believe in it, and most importantly to respect it, the OWGR needs to announce the formula, the mathematic equations or whatever, so it can be studied and judged as to its quality and reliability.

The OWGR system needs to use the new high profile term in Politics in United States: '€œTransparency.'€

End the skepticism, the doubt and the endless questions.

Make us believers'€¦'€¦'€¦'€¦'€¦'€¦'€¦SHOW US THE FORMULA !

That is all for today.

Talk to you soon,

The Surge!

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