Last week we saw some significant changes to the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) for the game of golf. In recent years the importance of the OWGR for qualification into certain tournaments on the world golfing ladder has become a priority for all professional male golfers.
It is often thought that a full understanding of the OWGR is only for mathematicians, academics, University Professors, boffins, sports’ statisticians and the like, so this mere Golf Coach decided to deep dive into what the changes are all about.
The OWGR system was first introduced 35 years ago and then involved just six Golf Tours, now, as of today, they involve players on 23 Golf Tours.
The recent modernisation is to reflect the rise in the global game and the growth of the OWGR and the system is now focused on Field Rating and Strength of Field, that involves more players and all who make the cut and its objectives remain; to be transparent, credible and accurate. The original regulations for a minimum number of points for a winner and the ‘Flagship Tour Event’ status have both been removed.
It continues to be a two-year rolling system, so in the short-term it will be a hybrid system and will take two years to be totally the new OWGR system.
There has been some noise of opinion from certain players, commentators and influencers over the last few days, but as with anything that is new, a snapshot of statistics is not always best to form an opinion.
Let’s all just see how the changes work in the real world, on the golf course and the resulting Ranking and, I for one, will wait until the end of 2022 before making a Cowen comment.
For the statistics from last Week’s OWGR Points, Week 33 of 2022:
PGA Tour
FedEx St. Jude Championship
Field Rating – 390.66675
Points for Winner, Will Zalatoris, US – 67.19183
Korn Ferry Tour
Pinnacle Bank Championship Presented by AETNA
Field Rating – 85.41142
Points for Winner, Robby Shelton IV, US – 14.69014
DP World Tour
ISPS Handa World Invitational Presented by AVIV
Field Rating – 46.92002
Points for Winner, Ewen Ferguson, Scotland – 8.16824
Asian Tour
International Series Singapore
Field Rating – 43.00465
Points for Winner, Nitithorn Thippong, Thai – 7.39648
Challenge Tour
Frederikshavn Challenge – Presented by Hessel
Field Rating – 22.00346
Points for Winner – Frederik Schott, Ger – 3.83055
Korean Tour
The 4th Woosung Construction Open
Field Rating – 18.56891
Points for Winner, Yonggu Shin, Canada – 3.23263
EuroPro Tour
The Lancer Scott Championship
Field Rating – 5.52031
Points for Winner, Jack Davidson, Wales – 0.99483
Pro Golf Tour
Richter + Frenzer Open 2022
Field Rating – 3.04462
Points for Winner, Alexandre Liu, France – 0.57948
Nordic Golf League
Timberwise Finnish Open
Field Rating – 2.43607
Points for Winner, Victor Eden, Sweden – 0.44995
— Peter Cowen is a world-renowned golf coach with academies in the UAE and England.
