With New World Ranking Points Allocations, Field Size Matters

The OWGR's new system came under scrutiny when the winner of the RSM Classic, with more players but fewer great ones, got more points than the winner of the DP World Tour Championship.

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Look for the issue of Official World Golf Ranking points allocation to get plenty of attention going forward. Jon Rahm heightened awareness when he said last week it was “laughable" that the DP World Tour Championship was receiving less points with seven of the top 25 in the world than the RSM Classic—which had nobody in the top 25.

The winner of the DP World event was getting just 21 points compared to the 37 going to the winner of the RSM Classic.

How?

The biggest reason is the new system that went into effect in early August that now assigns a rating of every player in the field called the Strokes Gained World Rating.

Previously, only the top 200-ranked players in a field were counted toward strength of field. Now it’s all of them, and because a tournament gets overall points to assign to the field, more players is going to lead to a higher number of points.

In Dubai, there were just 50 players. In Sea Island, Ga., there were 144. The new system is taking depth into account, unlike previously. And smaller-field events are being penalized.

Jon Rahm kicked up a lot of attention with comments calling world ranking points allocations "laughable" for the DP World Tour Championship vs. the PGA Tour's RSM Classic :: Martin Dokoupil/AP

While Rahm got a lot of attention for his comments, Rory McIlroy noted the change in a news conference a day earlier. He pointed out the 50-man field in Dubai versus the 144-field at the RSM.

“They have 90 more players to contribute to their strength of field," McIlroy said of the RSM. “The person who wins the RSM has to beat (143) other guys. You only have to beat 49 other guys here. It’s a much fairer system. It’s pure numbers. Has it upset people? Yes, because people have been used to getting a certain amount of world ranking points in one event and now it’s dropped. But I would say those events were getting more than they should be."

Whether that is the way this should work or not—still way undecided in the court of public opinion—McIlroy is correct. The new system means that limited-field events are getting fewer points. McIlroy got 38 points for winning the 30-player Tour Championship; last year, Rahm got 51 (as did Kevin Na) for having the lowest 72-hole score at the same event.

Last year, Collin Morikawa got 46 points for winning the season-ending Dubai event. This year, with 10 fewer players as well, Rahm only got 21.

By ranking every player in a field, a bigger field is going to have more points, even if a tournament it is going against one that is more top-heavy—as was the case this week.

“I think it’s the fairest system that you can come up with right now," McIlroy said. “And a lot of work went into that, five years of algorithms and analysis and work went into the system, so it’s not as if it changed overnight. A lot went into it. It’s the best one that we can come up with right now, and I think it will take a while. It will take another 18 months for it to play out because everyone gets two years into the rolling system.’’

McIlroy is correct on that latter point as well. It will take some time to smooth out as the two systems were melded. For example, LIV Golf players are actually losing points at a slower rate than they would have under the old system.

So the old system would have benefited LIV Golf more if the league does get points. And lesser tours are getting hit with a harsh reality.

The minimum-points subsidies that used to be in place across all the tours are gone. So the Asian Tour, for example, that typically saw its winners get 14 points are now getting only 4 or 5.

PGA Tour events are going to come out best simply due to depth. The tour has more top-rated players than any other, even well down the field list. Is this right? You can bet there will continue to be plenty of discourse.