OWGR Announces Two Major Changes To Golf’s World Ranking System

The OWGR (Official World Golf Ranking) has revealed two changes to its system for the new year, which will affect tournament winners and the PGA Tour's signature events.

Earlier this year, the OWGR found itself in the spotlight when it rejected an application from LIV Golf that would have seen its events receive ranking points. And now, just a few months on, the organisation - headed up by its chairman Peter Dawson - has made two major changes to how it will award points from the start of 2024.

The first change relates to tournaments with less than 80 players, with the OWGR now set to distribute a greater percentage of ranking points to the top finishes. Currently, a winner receives around 17-18% of the available points, with that figure set to increase to around 21% in limited-field events.

In addition, for limited-field events that don't feature a cut, the OWGR will no longer give ranking points to the bottom 15 per cent of the field. 

For matchplay events, players who lose their first-round match or do not win any matches in their pool won't get points. Although, with no matchplay events on the PGA Tour or DP World Tour schedule at present, this change is set to have minimal effect.

Such a change is likely to have a big effect on points awarded to the PGA Tour's signature events in the new year.

All eight competitions were set to feature fields of between 70-80 players, with five of them (The Sentry, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, RBC Heritage, Wells Fargo Championship and Travelers Championship) not featuring a cut.

Tiger Woods, for example, who made his return at the Hero World Challenge, would not have received any OWGR points under this new model for his 18th-place finish in the 20-man event. 

These changes, however, will not apply to end-of-season events, such as the FedEx Cup playoffs or DP World Tour Championship, where eligibility is based on performances over an entire season of full-field events.

The other change will be the introduction of a multi-win bonus to reward players who win multiple times in a 52-week period. Two-time winners will see a 60 per cent points boost, while those who win three or more times will receive a 70 per cent boost.  

"OWGR created the Multi-Win Bonus mechanism to more quickly identify emerging talent by providing opportunities for upward movement within the Ranking for top-performing players," the organisation explained when announcing the decision.

Ludvig Aberg, who rose more than 3,000 spots in the rankings in 2023 alone, is an example of someone who would have benefited from this bonus, given the Swedish sensation has already won twice since turning pro in June. 

Pablo Larrazabal, Adrian Meronk, Lucas Glover, Vincent Norrman, Grayson Murray, Louis Oosthuizen, Andy Ogletree and Jon Rahm are examples of others with multiple wins this year.

However, all of them could still be eligible for the points boost should they win again, with the OWGR revealing that the bonus refers to a 52-week period rather than a calendar year. 

Therefore, anyone who wins again after the new year will be eligible to receive a bonus should it come within 52 weeks of their most recent prior victory.

“Based on extensive analysis following the changes implemented in August 2022, we recognised these two opportunities to further enhance the OWGR and to accurately evaluate performances of the world’s participating players on all eligible Tours,” Dawson added when announcing the changes. 

“Adjustments to the Ranking are made after careful consideration, and we are confident that today’s updates will better position the OWGR for the future.”