What do the numbers say?
Let’s take an example: in May 2022, with his victory in the Netherlands at a time when “the old system” still reigned, Victor Perez scored 24 points in the world rankings. Eight months later, by winning in Mauritius, Antoine Rozner only registered… 8.5. On the larger tournaments, the same story: Perez garnered 25.9 points by winning in January at the Yas Links. Later in the same day, and if we admit that we give away the tenths, Jon Rahm scored twice as many points by winning theAmerican Expresson the PGA Tour. In short, we can turn the thing upside down, it is a fact: the gap between the two circuits, if we only speak of the points they bring to the world ranking, is growing.
Where does this come from?
The phenomenon has very little to do with the intrinsic quality of play of players on both sides of the Atlantic. It is above all mechanical. First, a quick explanation of how theOfficial World Golf Ranking, stage name of the men’s professional world ranking, works. Stay, it won’t be about math.
The system, which takes into account the results of the last two years, is based on the general level of the field of players of a tournament in which a player participates. The higher the participants are ranked, the more points the player’s performance will earn if they rank in the rewarded places. As such, winning a Major will pay more than winning a regular tournament, which itself will pay more than a second division circuit tournament. So far, everything makes sense.
To keep it as relevant as possible, the seven members of the structure managing the world ranking carry out, at fairly regular intervals of two to three years, adjustments to the calculation method. These seven members are the PGA of Americathe International Federation of PGA Toursl’USGAthe PGA Tourl’Augusta Nationalthe R&A and the European PGA. In a nutshell, all the heavyweights of men’s professional golf on this planet, encompassing between them the four Majors and all the circuits considered to be of the first division, not to mention their many satellites.
The last reform was announced in August 2021, before coming into force a year later. It contained, among other things, a measure largely responsible for widening the gap between the PGA Tour and the others (because the DP World Tour is not the only one concerned): the end of the minimum points guaranteed at each circuit.
Concretely, before August 2022, the tournaments of DP World Tour with the weakest fields nevertheless offered the guarantee to their winner of registering 24 points in the world ranking. Hence the amount collected, moreover, by Victor Perez in the Netherlands. A provision that irritated some members of the PGA Tour, considering themselves somewhat penalized. However, this provision has disappeared, and from now on, tournaments are evaluated without taking into account their circuit of membership.
1,9The difference between the number of world points won by Victor Perez during his victory in the Netherlands in May 2022 (24) and during his success in Abu Dhabi in January 2023 (25.9). The second tournament, stage of the Rolex Series, was however five times better endowed.
Victor Perez, during his victory at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, in January. (Photo Ryan Lim / AFP)
So what ?
But then, what is the problem? Isn’t making the ranking fairer a step in the right direction? The ambition displayed by the committee at the time of the implementation of the reform was in any case clearly this: to rid the classification of what was considered to be biases, and to apply only the reality on the ground. Except that…
Already, the new system itself sometimes shows some structural weaknesses. Thus, last week, the American Chris Kirkwinning the Honda Classic, on the PGA Tour, scored 31 points. He then triumphed over a field of players which included seven members of the world’s top 50, the best of them being ranked 18th. However, at the end of January, during the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, Rory McIlroy won after a tournament involving nine members of the top 50, including the world No. 1 (who was none other than himself). How many points did he score? “Only” 29.
“It’s only going to get worse”
And then remains the other problem: that of the dynamics of the system, as the tournaments, even the seasons, will be linked. “It’s a gap that, a priori, will only get worse, summary Antoine Rozner. What we realize is that the calculation system makes us really score very few points, and above all much less than before. The players of the DP World Tour will gradually lose places in the ranking, and we will still have fewer points. »
Typically, the 8.5 points of the Ile-de-France’s victory in Mauritius at the end of December brought him less than the number of “floor” points granted, at the time, to the tournaments of the Challenge Tourthe second European division. “I am aware that it was surely the smallest field of the year, he admits. 24 points, as in the old system, was surely too much. But 8.5 points was still not a lot. I’m about 140th player in the world. Without wanting to complain, in the old system, I would be largely top 100. Today, entering the top 50 by only playing regular tournaments of the DP World Tour is almost impossible. » And the little music of the more or less biased classification returns, but this time emitted from the other side of the Atlantic.
A major problem
Having seen the birth of the world ranking when he was a circuit professional, Patrice Barqueznow a consultant for Canal +is even more direct. “I think this world ranking, it is faltering, it no longer makes sense, he throws. Ideally, we should find a simpler, more basic system, like in tennis. But in golf, it’s complicated, because there are the PGAs, and in addition the Majors, which are independent. »
The Majors, precisely, are one of the main facts of the problem. Indeed, even if qualifying events exist for three of them, the possibility of participating in them is largely conditioned by the world ranking. “Typically, not being in the top 100 in the world takes away the possibility of playing the PGA Championship, illustrates Antoine Rozner. And, why not, to give it a good performance. »
Another possibility, to climb in the world hierarchy: grab the top 10 of the Race to Dubai at the end of the season, to earn a right to play on the PGA Tour. A novelty for this 2023 season which offers a great opportunity for the best players on the circuit based in Wentworth. But for the latter, this bridge is also the vision of a gap which, mechanically, would continue to grow.
