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The governing board of the Official World Golf Ranking announced last Wednesday it will end a nearly three-month freeze, and will resume alongside the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour. The ranking, which stopped in March as the coronavirus outbreak halted tournament play, will reactivate with results from this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge and Korn Ferry Challenge at TPC Sawgrass.
Although the golf community agreed that players should get credit for their performances as elite professional golf restarts, a staggered return across the world has created some disagreement. Many feel that players on the European Tour, scheduled to begin play again July 22, and other international circuits are at a disadvantage and could drop in the rankings as a result.
“What an unfair decision!” tweeted Mike Lorenzo-Vera of France. “Well done @OWGR Ltd!!! Thanks a lot!!!”
Ryder Cup hopeful Bernd Wiesberger chimed in: “Either all Tours are playing for points or none!”
While others voiced displeasure, European Tour chief executive officer Keith Pelley sent a memo to players to clarify what his organization proposed, unsuccessfully, as a temporary OWGR solution.
“We agreed with the proposal that the ranking should restart alongside the resumption of the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour next week on the understanding that dispensation was made for the European Tour and the Challenge Tour – and indeed many other tours around the world – whose players will be disadvantaged by not being able to play at this time,” Pelley wrote in the memo. “Our proposal to correct this imbalance was either freezing the current average points of all European Tour members unable to play tournament golf until we restart our season or increasing the overall OWGR points available at our tournaments when we do restart.
“Without either of those adjustments, the consequences are negative for the majority of our membership, who will lose points through no fault of their own, when they are unable to play.”
In its statement, the OWGR board said one tour restarting ahead of another does not automatically mean a player with more opportunities can move ahead of another – a player’s results also can cause a drop in ranking. Also, qualifying for major championships and other top-tier events will be decided largely by where players stood before the freeze.
“The averaging formula used in the calculation of the Ranking will help to mitigate any resulting impact, be it positive or negative to a player’s ranking,” the statement read. “The major championships and professional tours involved in the administration of the Ranking are acutely aware of the difficulties arising around the world from a staggered resumption of play. In light of this, these organizations have agreed, wherever possible and appropriate, to incorporate the Ranking through Week 11 as part of the qualification criteria for their events.”
With regard to the Ryder Cup, European Team qualifying through the world points list has been frozen until the tour’s July restart. This is meant as a safeguard to prevent Europeans who play the PGA Tour from gaining an advantage.
“Any points gained from PGA Tour or Korn Ferry Tour events this month and next – up until the restart of our season – will not officially count on the Ryder Cup world points list,” Pelley said in the memo. “Having spoken with (captain) Pádraig (Harrington), he wants to reassure all members that, while the Ryder Cup world points list is frozen, he will be monitoring the form of all possible Ryder Cup team members as part of his general review of player performances.”
This week’s first tournament back for the PGA Tour offers an opportunity for many of the world’s best to impress Harrington. The field at Colonial Country Club contains 15 of the top 20 players in the world, including Nos. 1 and 2 in Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, as well as Nos. 3, 4 and 5 in Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson.
Sean Fairholm