The Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) is a system for rating the performance level of male professional golfers (although there is no rule prohibiting women from being ranked).
But those involved in this process know that this doesn’t mean that the person identified on the top of this list is the best golfer on earth or the number one. The purpose is to make sure that the field for all the major events is set in a fair and transparent manner.
How it worksLest it be forgotten, there are 60 million people who play this sport, globally. Out of this, my estimate is that around 5000 play as a profession on many organised tours. The largest and most important tours for male professionals include the PGA Tour, European Tour, Japanese Tour, Asian Tour and Sunshine Tour. In addition, points are awarded for high finishes on the Canadian Tour, One Asia Tour, Nationwide Tour (developmental tour of the PGA Tour), Challenge Tour (developmental tour of the European Tour), Korean Tour and Tour de las Americas.
The rankings, updated and published on a weekly basis, allow golfers who play in different tournaments on different tours and continents to be ranked against one another on a single scale. Points for each player are gathered during a two-year rolling period, with points awarded for every event maintained for a 13-week period to recognise recent performances. It will suffice to say that this complex system with minimum and maximum divisor’s and average points produces a list to give your right arm for!
Why be rankedApart from being recognised for consistent performance, the rankings primarily affect the golfers’ endorsement income. Any advertiser in this space would pay top dollar to have the Number 1 golfer endorse his product. Tiger, despite finishing 2014 in the 32 spot and earning only USD 6.2 million, had endorsement earnings of USD 55 million, making him the sixth-highest-earning athlete in the year. Phil Mickelson, with USD 53 million, was in the 8 spot. As the Number one, imagine the bragging rights, both for the player and the tournament sponsors who seek to attract the best golfers to their events. It is said that Hero Motors paid Tiger in excess of USD 2 million to appear at the Delhi Golf Club recently to endorse their product, and have also signed him up for a 4-year deal worth Rs 250 crore! He is ranked a lowly 75 currently.
Events based on OWGRThe WGC Accenture Match Play Championship is the only event that bases eligibility strictly on OWGR, with only the top 64 players in the OWGR eligible to participate. Along with the various conditions for eligibility, The Open (British) and the Augusta Masters include the top 50 OWGR as automatic entries as do the WGC Cadillac Championship and the WGC Bridgestone Invitational. The US Open has 60 of them, and the WGC HSBC, 25. This is called the “catch-all” category.
Daniel BergerReaders will recall my column on the 2014 US Open, where I had refereed for Daniel Berger on Father’s Day. Young Daniel has been making waves, just losing to Padraig Harrington, who captured his first PGA Tour title in more than six years last Monday, when he won the Honda Classic by beating rookie Daniel on the second playoff hole. With this performance, Daniel has moved up the OWGR from 170 to 73!
Anirban's ascendancyAfter his Indian Open win, Anirban has moved from 68th to 34th in the OWGR, all in a matter of three weeks. He is just 6 six places away from Jeev’s career-best of 28, and I am sure he is going to get better and better.
He will now be able to play some of the biggest tournaments across the globe and it will be important that he picks and chooses his schedule properly, so as to be mentally agile and physically fit to take on the best players, including at his debut Augusta Master’s in April.
Number oneRory McIlroy has stamped his authority on international golf and is currently ranked Number 1. In 2013, Nike signed a USD 200 million deal with him, which obviously is now paying off. Bubba Watson, Henrik Stenson, Jason Day and Adam Scott make up the top five.
