New Modernised World Ranking System Revealed

The Official World Golf Ranking has unveiled some big changes to how it ranks players and tournaments

The Official World Golf Ranking has updated how it measures the field strength of its tournaments in a move that is said to "modernise" the system.

A new Strokes Gained World Rating system has been introduced to better identify the best players in the world, by judging them on their actual scores rather than just their results.

This is done by the introduction of Performance Points, which each player will earn to make it clearer on how to determine the Field Rating.

The Field Rating, previously Strength of Field (SoF), will then be decided by the sum of the field's Performance Points.

The new Field Rating calculation will be made up from all of the players in a tournament, as oppose to the current method that only takes into account those in the field that are in the world's top 200.

Results in tournaments will still be what determines the players' positions in the world rankings but the Strokes Gained and Performance Points systems will help set the field strength more accurately, offering up more world ranking points to stronger fields and fewer points to weaker ones.

The changes also see ranking points given to all players who make the cut, something that wasn't currently on offer.

There will no longer be Minimum Point Levels awarded to tournaments that do not have a strong enough Field Rating, with the OWGR saying that this was resulting in a bias in the system.

Flagship Tournaments have also been removed, meaning that the likes of the BMW PGA Championship, Japan Open, Australian Open, Indonesian Masters and other flagship events will now have Field Ratings calculated based on the strength of their fields rather than carrying a minimum points offering.

Another aspect that has gone is the Home Rating, which contributed to the strength of field based on how many players teeing it up from the home tour were in the top-30 on the previous year's order of merit.

The four men's Majors will still award 100 points to the winner, with the Players Championship winner picking up 80 points. All other tournaments will offer a maximum of 80 points to the winner based on the Field Rating.

The new system is in place from this week, although it will take a year until the results are taken into account for the OWGR, starting 14th August 2022.

It has taken three years of analysis of the current system and the changes have been made to ensure "a transparent, credible and accurate ranking based on the relative performances of participating players."

“The Official World Golf Ranking owes a massive debt of gratitude to founders Mark H McCormack and Tony Greer, whose vision has done so much to shape the competitive landscape of men’s professional golf over the past 35 years”, said Official World Golf Ranking Chairman Peter Dawson.

“Since 1986, the Tours eligible for inclusion have grown in number from 6 to 23 and the rankings have been continuously modified to accommodate this expansion and to improve accuracy. We are confident the further enhancements announced today will best position OWGR for the years ahead.”

The OWGR says that the top-10 is likely to remain the same, whilst the top-50 may change by 2-5 players.

Read the full FAQ guide from the OWGR