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The R&A and the USGA have announced a series of sweeping changes to the World Amateur Golf Ranking which will come into effect with the first update in January next year.
The game’s governing authorities have introduced what they call the Power Method which they believe will better reflect the current form of golfers by placing greater emphasis on recent results.
There is also a tacit acceptance that the previous system had provided what were described as “challenges.”
With the new system every event in the world will earn a “power” based on the strength of its starting field which then will determine the total number of ranking points on offer to the field. This will extend to a maximum of 1,000 for the top amateur events with points also being accrued when playing in professional tournaments.
The Power Method can be utilised for stroke-play and match-play events and also caters to formats like Stableford, which could not be counted in the previous system.
Points registered in tournaments staged within the most recent 52-week period will count at full value but from that point onwards will reduce proportionately at about 2 percent each week before being discounted altogether after 104 weeks.
Ranking points will be allocated to players based on their overall finishing position in the tournament rather than the previous round-based allocation. The divisors under the Power Method also will become event-based rather than round-based under the previous system. The new minimum divisors will be 7 for women and 8 for men.
“We are thrilled to introduce the Power Method, which will significantly improve the World Amateur Golf Ranking,” said Jeff Holzschuh, chairman of the WAGR Committee. “We have listened to feedback about WAGR since inception and we believe this change addresses many of the challenges within the system.”
“The simplicity and elegance of the revised WAGR system will be of great benefit to competitive players at every level,” added Steve Otto, the R&A’s director of equipment standards and chief technology officer. “It will be easier for players to become ranked under the Power Method but with the system recognising current form and rewarding recent top results it will be tougher to remain ranked compared to the previous system.
“The Power Method will make WAGR a true indication of the ranking of the world’s best and leading amateurs.”
Euan Walker will start his first full season as a professional with a full exemption on the Challenge Tour after playing all six rounds of the European Tour’s Final Q-School at Lumine Golf Club in Spain.
The Scottish Walker Cup player was not among the 28 players to earn a card on the European Tour but by finishing 66th in Tarragona he did claim a spot on Europe’s secondary circuit.
This year’s Q-School was dominated players with previous European Tour experience but past Toyota Junior World champion Rasmus Højgaard of Denmark and former Finnish amateur international Sami Välimäki also were among that group of 28 who earned a tilt at the big time.
Højgaard’s twin brother, Nicolai, also made the cut in Spain and will play on next year’s Challenge Tour. He won the 2018 European Amateur title and teamed up with his brother to help their country win its first World Amateur Team Championship later the same year.
Benjamin Poke, a Danish Challenge Tour player, was the Final Q-School medalist, breaking 70 in each of his six rounds and finishing six strokes ahead of three-time European Tour winner Grégory Havret from France.
“I’m planning to celebrate this moment for a while,” said Poke, 27. “You work so hard and then there are times when you are struggling and it isn’t easy. But you’ve got to get up, carry on and then celebrate the good times when they happen.”
Iceland’s Bjarki Pétursson was the only amateur to make it through to Final Q-School. He turned pro ahead of the event but then saw his hopes playing on either the European Tour or the Challenge Tour dashed when he missed the cut after the first four rounds. Ben Hutchinson, the 2019 English Home International team member, was another casualty at that stage.
RESULTS
Austria’s Isabella Holpfer and France’s Candice Mahé are two of a large group of young European players who have signed up to play college golf in the US next year.
Both have enrolled at the University of Georgia, with 2019 Spanish International Ladies’ champion Mahé due to join the Bulldogs in January and 2018 English Women’s champion Holpfer heading across the Atlantic in the autumn along with most of the others in the new intake.
Both currently hold down a place inside the top 50 in the women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking and will join Italy’s Caterina Don and Canada’s Céleste Dao at their new college.
“You try to build your programme each year and to build depth,” said Georgia head coach Josh Brewer. “Being able to bring in players who are ranked 40th and 41st in the world tells you where we are as a programme and what kind of players want to come here and compete.
“Isabella hits it really straight and she’s really consistent. Over the last three years she played at a high level and won at various locations in different conditions all round the world. We expect her to continue down that path at Georgia.
“Candice is truly a competitor. A lot of that comes from representing France multiple times and wanting to win as a team. She wants individual titles but she understands and enjoys team golf and what it takes to be successful as a team. She’s really close to Caterina (Don) and Céleste (Dao). They really convinced me to recruit her harder and I’m sure glad they did.”
Holpfer and Mahé will be joined in the States by England’s Annabell Fuller, who is currently at No. 35 in the WAGR and who has enlisted at the University of Florida. The Great Britain & Ireland international is part of a large group of English players to sign up for a US college which also includes Jess Baker (Central Florida), Jessica Bailey (Louisiana State), Rosie Belsham (Baylor), Ellie Gower (Colorado), Lauren Gooding (Colorado), Charlotte Heath (Florida State) and Mimi Rhodes (Wake Forest).
Fuller starts at Florida at the same time as reigning Swedish national champion Sarah Ericsson while other new recruits include Ireland’s Sara Byrne (Miami), Áine Donegan (Indiana) and Anna Foster (Auburn); Italy’s Alessia Nobilio (UCLA) and Benedetta Moresco (Alabama); Germany’s Hannah Karg (Baylor), Nina Lang (Baylor) and Viktoria Hund (College of Charleston); France’s Mahina Leveau (Georgia State) and Loïs Lau (TCU); Slovakia’s Katy Drocárová (Denver) and Michaela Vávrová (Nebraska); Scotland’s Evanna Hynd (High Point University); Belgium’s Rebecca Becht (Stanford); Switzerland’s Yael Berger (Arizona); Slovenia’s Lara Ječnik (Kennesaw State); the Czech Republic’s Patricie Macková (Maryland); Russia’s Ekaterina Malakhova (Northern Arizona); Norway’s Rikke Nordvik (Rutgers); and Welsh champion Elle Willis (East Tennessee State).
World No. 6 Nobilio joins compatriot Emilie Paltrinieri, Austria’s Emma Spitz, Ireland’s Annabel Wilson and Russia’s Vera Markevich in a cosmopolitan UCLA squad.
“Alessia is one of the top amateur golfers in the world,” said UCLA head women’s coach Carrie Forsyth. “We anticipate that Alessia will be one of the strongest freshman players to ever join the Bruins and know that her presence in our programme will elevate our team and enable our programme to contend for a championship in 2021.”
English world No. 14 Joe Pagdin is the top-ranked male recruit among next year’s European intake. He is based in Florida and will take up a place as expected at the University of Florida.
“Joe and his family committed to the University of Florida and myself more than four years ago,” said head coach JC Deacon. “I am very proud of the relationship and trust we have developed.
“Joe is extremely talented and competitive. His experience with the England Golf national team has elevated Joe to one of the better amateurs in the world and he will immediately make our team better. He is close friends with many of the current players and will feel right at home when he gets started in Gainesville next August.”
Pagdin will be joined in the collegiate ranks by compatriots Ben Carberry (East Tennessee State), Charlie Crockett (Wichita State), Callum Macfie (Iowa), Remy Miller (University of Texas El Paso), Ben Pierleoni (Denver), George Saunders (Tennessee) and Joe Sullivan (Jacksonville); Ireland’s Odhrán Maguire (East Carolina) and Luke O’Neill (Kansas State); Norway’s Sander Akeren (North Carolina Wilmington), Mikkel Antonsen (Virginia Commonwealth) and Bård Skogen (Texas Tech); Spain’s Hugo Aguilar Puertes (Louisiana State); Iceland’s Sigurður Blumenstein (James Madison); France’s Alexandre d’Aurelle de Paladines (James Madison); Portugal’s Daniel Rodrigues (Texas A&M); Denmark’s Mikkel Schmitt (Louisiana-Monroe); Finland’s Saku Tuusa (Missouri); and Sweden’s Adam Wallin (Ohio State).
Maguire is the younger brother of twins Leona and Lisa Maguire, who spent four years at Duke University during their sparkling amateur careers.
“Odhrán is a very talented and hard-working golfer who has had some wonderful tournament experience,” said East Carolina head coach Andrew Sapp. “We have been recruiting Odhrán for a long time and are excited for this day to come. He has a great personality and his work ethic will fit in well with his future teammates.”
Australian-based Scottish international Connor McKinney ended his junior career on a high note when he stormed to victory in the Drummond Golf Boys’ Junior Amateur Championship at Mandurah Country Club in Western Australia.
McKinney, who plays out of Joondalup Country Club in Perth, fired rounds of 66 and 65 to claim a seven-shot victory on 11-under-par 131.
“I gave myself a lot of chances today, hit it well off the tee which you really have to do here,” he said. “This, coupled with solid putting, ended in a good result.”
McKinney represented GB&I at this year’s Jacques Léglise Trophy and Scotland in both the Men’s and Boys’ Home Internationals.
It is not every day that an amateur golfer beats a past Open champion but that is exactly what Welshman Gaelen Trew achieved when he got the better of Scotland’s Paul Lawrie at the Portugal Golf Tour’s Dom Pedro Victoria Classic at Vilamoura.
The two players were tied on 138 after both shooting two rounds of 69 but Trew went on to beat the 1999 Open champion in the subsequent play-off.
Trew, who plays out of West Hill in Surrey, represented his country in both this year’s European Team Championship and Home Internationals. Earlier this season he also finished third behind Italy’s Giovanni Manzoni in the Swiss International Amateur.
Haukur Örn Birgisson has been named as the 36th president of the European Golf Association.
The president of the Icelandic Golf Union replaces Frenchman and former R&A captain Pierre Bechmann, who has led the association for the past two years. Birgisson previously served on the EGA’s championship and executive committees. He was installed as president at the organisation’s recent AGM at Chantilly, France, at the same time as England’s Jan Hubrecht was named as the president-elect.
“I am happy and very honoured, because I am privileged to have been chosen, by you, to lead the European Golf Association for the next two years,” Birgisson said at the meeting. “I will do my best to make you proud to be part of the EGA.”
Alan Mew will have big shoes to fill after taking over as captain of the England senior men’s team.
The 66-year-old Mew, from Hampshire, succeeds Cheshire’s Roy Smethurst, who retired recently after a successful five-year tenure which included victories in this year’s European Senior Men’s Team Championship and Senior Men’s Home Internationals.
Mew, who claimed this year’s Irish Open Seniors title and who briefly played on what was then the European Senior Tour before being reinstated as an amateur, was a member of the teams that won in both Denmark and at Alnmouth.
“I understand there were a few candidates to replace Roy so, naturally, I’m delighted to have been given the role,” he said. “I’ve had individual success as a golfer down the years, but it is in team events where I feel I have excelled and experienced the biggest highs from an emotional point of view.
“The 2019 England squad was without doubt the best group I have been involved with and it was a privilege to have been part of that success. The team spirit was second to none. That is essential in any team event and it’s something I will be looking to build on in 2020.”
E-MAIL COLIN