IN FOCUS THE WORLD RANKINGS:THE WORLD has been turned on its head ever since Tiger Woods fell from his perch. And, let's be honest, now we know that the world rankings – back in the time when Woods occupied the top spot week-in and week-out – were as boring as watching paint dry or folding laundry.
The seismic shift since his fall from grace and subsequent plummeting down the list has, ironically, invigorated the rankings. And the yo-yoing atop the list has added spice for the most part, but not in America where there has been some turning-up of noses at the fact that players who haven’t won Majors are deemed to be “world number one”.
Then, as the singer Morrissey might put it, “America is not the world”.
Luke Donald succeeded Lee Westwood as world number one with his win in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth on Sunday and became the newest non-Major winner to claim the top spot. He can expect a similar level of criticism from snipers – mainly in the States – who believe the increased weights given to tours away from the US Tour has contributed to a ranking that has fewer Americans in the top 10 than at any time since the official world rankings commenced in April 1986.
For sure, the official world rankings is a complicated – but fully transparent – system and, if the small print requires close reading, it does exactly what it says on the tin: it finds the player who has been playing the best golf over a two-year period, with points weighted more towards a player’s current form, ie the most recent 13 weeks of the rolling season.
As Ian Barker, who heads the world rankings, observed: “You will never have a system that everybody thinks is perfect but its strength is that it is completely transparent and not voted by committee. It’s pure maths.”
Barker expanded: “Points won in the past 13 weeks are full value then after that there is a linear decrease until they are two years old. Imagine a corridor and you have 13 paces until you get down to an escalator which goes down a further 91 steps.
“Then, with every performance, you are effectively taking a step forward. The system is completely transparent.”
In fact, the formula is complicated and necessarily so as it pools together 10 different global tours and the four Majors – the US Masters, the US Open, the British Open and the US PGA – and ranks everyone on the same list.
Last October, when Westwood started his first spell as world number one, renowned coach Butch Harmon claimed that the “system sucked”, claiming US PGA champion Martin Kaymer – who subsequently usurped Westwood to become number one only to lose the honour again after a couple of months – was more deserving of the accolade.
“Did Westwood win a major this year, or any year? I think not,” argued Harmon at the time.
In fact, Westwood was not the first player to become world number one without winning a Major. He was the fourth. And Donald is now the fifth. Ian Woosnam reached number one in 1991 the week before he won the US Masters and Fred Couples was at number one in two separate weeks a month before he won the Masters in 1992. David Duval was number one for 15 weeks in 1999, two years before he won the British Open. So, Harmon’s argument was basically defeated by old history.
Other sniping from stateside has regularly queried why tournaments in Asia particularly generated world rankings points and that American players were losing out. On that point in particular, Colin Montgomerie, Europe’s Ryder Cup captain of last year, has responded articulately: “What are they really complaining about? Is it the fact that they are not getting as many points for their events and we are? Well, the domination was in America the last 10 years and they were getting more points that we were.
“The Americans are complaining because what happens is that the more top-ranked players you have, the more points you generate. I think it’s just that they can’t quite fathom that the power of America has changed. The major power, if you like, once felt superior and it is now different. The top three in the world are non-American. And they don’t have a Major champion. Plus the Ryder Cup. Five major trophies, if you like, that we hold (on the European Tour). So, they’re going to shout out and say something about why should this be,” said Montgomerie, who, despite dominating the European Tour in his heyday never reached the world number one position.
Westwood became the first European since Nick Faldo in 1994 to become the world number one and, in many ways, his rise – from 266th in 2003 when he was fighting a severe slump in form – encapsulated how the system worked to reward players who played consistently well. At the time, Westwood, having ended the record run of 281 weeks by Woods, remarked: “Everyone thought it was unattainable. People go through different things in life, and form comes and goes. I know as well as anyone you can lose your form.”
He added: “Whenever you can sit down and say, ‘I’m the best in the world right now’, it’s a dream that everybody holds.”
What is for sure is that the current battle for the world number one position is exciting for men’s golf and, in some ways, reminiscent of June 1997 when Woods, Ernie Els and Greg Norman all reached number one in a three-week span. That was before Woods put a vice-like grip on the position, and it’s his fall which has served to bring new life into the position, with Westwood, Kaymer and now Donald all savouring the honour in recent months.
Donald, the newest and 15th holder of the honour, remarked: “It’s obviously a special accomplishment, something that I’ll remember forever. As I said before, it’s something that will be a great story when I’m an old man telling my grandkids that I was once the best player in the world at golf. It’s a little surreal. It’s hard to believe in a certain way. You keep thinking that you have the ability and the talent, but you never quite really know.
“Whether it will change me, I don’t think so. The goal for me is to always continue to focus on the processes of getting better, and just because I have reached the pinnacle of the world rankings doesn’t mean my work is done. I have a lot more to accomplish, hopefully many more victories in me, and hopefully I can at least be somewhat of a worthy number one for a few weeks,” said Donald.
Interestingly, the observation of a certain Nick Faldo on the subject is worth noting. “I wanted to be number one. It is a nice one to win. But Majors are the one, because you have to go and win them and finish them off.”
Point made!
How the world rankings work
THE OFFICIAL World Golf Ranking, which is endorsed by the four Major Championships and the six leading professional tours which make up the International Federation of PGA Tours (PGA Tour, European Tour, Japan Golf Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia, Sunshine Tour and Asian Tour), is issued every Monday following the completion of the previous week’s tournaments from around the world.
The official events from the six leading professional tours together with the Canadian OneAsia South American (TLA) Korean Nationwide and European Challenge Tours are all taken into account and “Ranking Points” are awarded according to the players’ finishing positions and are generally related to the strength of the field based on the number and ranking of the top 200 world-ranked players and the top 30 of the home tour players in the respective tournaments (event “Rating Values”).
However, the four Major Championships are rated separately to reflect the higher quality of the events together with the Players Championship in the United States.
In addition the BMW PGA Championship in Europe, the Australian, Japan and South African Open Championships and the flagship events on the Asian Nationwide and European Challenge Tours are allocated higher minimum points levels to reflect their status.
The World Ranking Points for each player are accumulated over a two-year “rolling” period, with the points awarded for each event maintained for a 13-week period to place additional emphasis on recent performances – ranking points are then reduced in equal decrements for the remaining 91 weeks of the two-year ranking period.
Each player is then ranked according to his average points per tournament, which is determined by dividing his total number of points by the tournaments he has played over that two-year period. There is a minimum divisor of 40 tournaments over the two-year ranking period and a maximum divisor of a player’s last 56 events (54 from June 26th, 2011).
The winners of the Masters Tournament, the US Open Championship the British Open and the PGA Championship are awarded 100 points (60 points for 2nd place, 40 for 3rd, 30 for 4th, down to 1.50 points for a player completing the final round) and the winner of the Players Championship is awarded 80 points (points are awarded down to 1.20 points for 60th place and ties).
The BMW PGA Championship has a minimum 64 points for the winner (points to 56th place).
Minimum points levels for the winners of official tour events have been set at six points for the Canadian OneAsia South American and Korean Tours (points to sixth place), 12 points for the European Challenge Tour (points to 14th place), 14 points for the Asian Sunshine and Nationwide Tours (points to 17th place), 16 points for the Australasian and Japanese Tours (points to 19th place) and 24 points for European and the United States Tours (points to 27th place).
In addition, the Open Championships of Australia, Japan and South Africa have a minimum of 32 points for the winner (points to 37th place) and the flagship events on the Asian and Nationwide Tours have a minimum of 20 points for the winner (points to 22nd place) and the European Challenge Tour has a minimum of 16 points for the winner (points to 19th place).
In the cases of co-sanctioned Tour events the minimum points levels are determined using the “average” of the minimum tour ranking points from each tour (rounded up to nearest whole number).
Points are reduced by 25 per cent for tournaments curtailed to 36 holes because of inclement weather or other reasons.
World Number Ones
BERNHARD LANGER (3 weeks) Germany Majors: 2 – US Masters (1985, 1993)
SEVE BALLESTEROS (61 weeks) Spain Majors: 5 – US Masters (1980, 1983), British Open (1979, 1984, 1988)
GREG NORMAN (331 weeks) Australia Majors: 2 – British Open (1983, 1986
NICK FALDO (97 weeks) England Majors: 6 – US Masters (1989, 1990, 1996), British Open (1987, 1990, 1992)
IAN WOOSNAM (50 weeks) Wales Majors: 1 – US Masters (1991)
FRED COUPLES (16 weeks) United States Majors: 1 – US Masters (1992)
NICK PRICE (44 weeks) Zimbabwe Majors: 3 – British Open (1994), US PGA (1992, 1994)
TOM LEHMAN (1 week) United States Majors: 1 – British Open (1996)
TIGER WOODS (623 weeks) United States Majors: 14 – US Masters (1997, 2001, 2002, 2003), US Open (2000, 2002, 2008), British Open (2000, 2005, 2006), US PGA (1999, 2000, 2006, 2007)
ERNIE ELS (9 weeks) South Africa Majors: 3 – US Open (1994, 1997), British Open (2002)
DAVID DUVAL (15 weeks) United States Majors: 1 – British Open (2001)
VIJAY SINGH (32 weeks) Fiji Majors: 3 – US Masters (2000), US PGA (1998, 2004)
LEE WESTWOOD (22 weeks) England Majors: None
MARTIN KAYMER (8 weeks) Germany Majors: 1 – US PGA (2010)
LUKE DONALD (-) England Majors: None
