The governing board of the Official World Golf Ranking are making changes to the system after voting against making LIV Golf events eligible for ranking points.
The OWGR board have approved changes to their rankings system in the New Year that highlight emerging talent and rebalance the points distribution curve for limited field events.
Points will be awarded to the top finishers in fields with a maximum of 80 players starting on January 1. Players finishing in the bottom 15% will not be awarded any points. Previously, whether they were limited or full field events, the standard curve was the same.
Players now also have an added incentive to win multiple events within a 52-week-rolling period. Winning two titles in 12 months will earn players a 60% points bonus, with that rising to 70% with a third success in that time.
The OGWR describes the multi-win bonus mechanism as providing opportunities for upward movement within the system. However, there is a cap of four bonus points to prevent them from overly affecting the top of the rankings while still being impactful further down them.
Predictions from the OGWR state that lower-ranked players could benefit from a ranking increase of between 50 and 100 positions with multiple wins. They say those on the Federation Ranking List stand to receive significant changes.
“OWGR chairman Peter Dawson stated in the announcement that we recognize these two opportunities to further enhance the OWGR and to accurately evaluate performances of the world’s participating players on all eligible Tours, based on extensive analysis following the changes implemented in August 2022.”
“Adjustments to the Ranking are made after careful consideration, and we are confident that today’s updates will better position the OWGR for the future.” These comments come months after Dawson and the OWGR irked LIV Golf by denying their application for tour status. “We are not at war with them,” he said in October.
“This decision not to make them eligible is not political. It is entirely technical. LIV players are self-evidently good enough to be ranked.
“They’re just not playing in a format where they can be ranked equitably with the other 24 tours and thousands of players trying to compete on them.” LIV did not take well to the decision.
“OWGR’s sole objective is to rank the best players across the globe. Today’s communication makes clear that it can no longer deliver on that objective,” a statement released at the time read.
“Players have historically remained subject to a single world ranking to qualify for major championships, the biggest events, and for corporate sponsor contract value. A ranking which fails to fairly represent all participants, irrespective of where in the world they play golf, robs fans, players and all of golf’s stakeholders of the objective basis underpinning any accurate recognition of the world’s best player performances.
It also deprives certain established tournaments of their best fields. There is currently no real, worldwide scoring or ranking system in professional golf. As long as the best player performances are not acknowledged, neither fans nor players stand to gain from a lack of trust or clarity.”