The Ranking: Wrapping Up Tour Seasons and Title Sponsorships

Before digging into a holiday feast, Gary Van Sickle takes a spin around golf's last big week of 2022.

The world’s major golf tours wrapped up their seasons last weekend. Let the Silly Season games begin.

It may be worth noting about the state of the game that Rory McIlroy won the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai and the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup, and the economic differences.

Last week’s scoreboard:

FedEx Cup title: $18 million.

Race to Dubai bonus: $2 million.

LPGA CME Group Tour Championship first prize: $2 million.

The DP World Tour needs to up its game. Meanwhile, The Ranking examines the other extremely important world events with a clarity rarely seen …

9. A Florida district judge dismissed Patrick Reed’s lawsuit against Golf Channel and other media members and gave him until Dec. 16 to file an amended complaint that should “incorporate only the factual allegations that are relevant” to each of his 120 allegations. Apparently even judges allow mulligans …

8. Save a horse, ride a cowboy… Hall-of-Famer Tom Watson, 73, had a riding accident last week that forced him to undergo surgery to replace his left shoulder. He and his son, Michael, will miss next month’s father-son PNC Championship. So Watson, who had won more than $45,000 riding in professional cutting horse competitions, fell off a horse? Nope. He rolled a go-kart while driving on his Kansas farm. According to one go-kart site, the age when it’s OK for kids to start driving go-karts is 5 or 6. So maybe Watson’s ceremonial Masters tee shot in April won’t be—or shouldn’t be—a drive ...

7. Hit and sunk … It appeared as if LIV Golf indirectly killed its first PGA Tour event when Honda announced that its 2023 Honda Classic tournament would be its last, ending a 42-year run, and that its demise was due to the PGA Tour’s new elevated-tournament plan in which 13 events—but not the Honda Classic—would have elite fields and expanded purses. That plan is a response to LIV Golf’s super-inflated purses and means non-elevated PGA Tour events will likely feature few of the world’s top players. However, the PGA Tour already knew Honda was dropping out well before elevated tournaments were planned, so LIV Golf wasn't a factor. The auto-maker has lost more than 2% of its market share, Accord-ing to GoodCarBadCar.net. Ultimately, this may be a lesson in Civics.

6. Get smart… After Joel Dahmen shot 64, tied for the final round’s low score, and finished fifth in the RSM Classic, the always-quotable Dahmen was asked the key to his stellar play. “I don’t know,” Dahmen answered. “Not being an idiot.” All you young kids out there taking up golf, remember that: Don’t be an idiot …

Jon Rahm (left) and Rory McIlroy both won interesting-looking trophies on Sunday in Dubai, plus Rory won a second season-ending big check :: Eoin Clarke/Golffile

5. Last laugh, last gaffe … Jon Rahm, who won the DP World Tour Championship, raised eyebrows when he called the world golf rankings “laughable” because the RSM Classic winner could earn more ranking points than the DP World Tour Championship winner. Golfweek.com reached Mark Broadie, golf’s official Math Czar, who explained that the DP World Tour winner had to beat only 49 other players in a no-cut event with 34 of the world’s top 200-ranked players while the RSM winner had to outlast 155 players in a field with 68 of the top 200. So, RSM rules. Meanwhile, the last-place DP finisher earned more points than the last-place RSM finisher even though the latter had to beat approximately 90 players for the right to play on the weekend. The Ranking believes golf doesn’t need rankings because it’s got something better—a scoreboard …

4. Rebound of the week … Canada’s Adam Svensson rededicated himself to working on his golf game three years ago when he got demoted to the Korn Ferry Tour and it paid off when he won the RSM Classic, his first PGA Tour victory. He did it the hard way, opening with a 75, then shooting 64 just to make the cut. He’d never had a top-5 finish in 69 previous starts but holed a slew of key putts in the final round to get the win, a bunch of money and, oh yeah, a Masters invitation. Included in that rededication? Svensson gave up alcohol. Congrats, now pass the chocolate milk …

3. Best in Show … Last week’s most compelling finish came at the DP World Tour Championship thanks to a star-studded shootout between former world No. 1 Jon Rahm; current No. 1 Rory McIlroy; U.S. Open champion Matthew Fitzpatrick; and Alex Noren, representing Sweden. Rahm birdied the first three holes in the last round, shot 67, scored his third win in 2022 and said he hopes “people stop telling me it was a bad year.” Rahm officially had a good year. Even though he and McIlroy combined to win zero majors …

2. Show me the money … By finishing fourth at the DP World Tour Championship, Rory McIlroy became the second man to win the PGA Tour and DP World Tour money lists in the same year. Henrik Stenson did it in 2013. It was McIlroy’s fourth European money title. Only Colin Montgomerie, with eight, and Seve Ballesteros, with six, have won more. McIlroy’s haul from both tours, plus bonuses, exceeded $44 million. Man, that’s Dustin Johnson money …

1. Ready, set, Ko… Nelly Korda and Atthaya Thitikul held the No. 1 ranking in 2022 but Lydia Ko made the most indelible imprint on the season. Ko won the CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Fla., and its $2 million prize, the richest in women’s golf. She wrapped up the tour’s Player of the Year Award with her third win; earned $4.3 million, just $591 less than Lorena Ochoa’s 2007 single-season record; and snagged her second Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average. Ko’s revamped game may make her the LPGA player to beat in 2023. The first time Ko won this tournament was seven years ago. With a revamped and better-than-ever game, Ko is a crafty veteran at age … 25? She’s just getting started, again …