Official World Golf Rankings

Calculation of the rankings

Points are awarded on the basis of final positions in official tour events on the qualifying tours. The number of points available at each tournament depends on the prestige of the tournament and the existing rankings of the participating golfers. The four major tournaments automatically receive the maximum possible rating, with 50 points allocated to the winner. The winner of The Players Championship receives 40 points, and the winners of the three individual events in the World Golf Championships series each gain 38 points. The winner of most PGA Tour events gains a number of points ranging from the high teens to the mid thirties, and most PGA European Tour events offer a points tally between low double figures and the mid twenties for the winner. On the other tours, winners usually receive a single figure points award, but a few of the stronger events rate a double figure award.

Related Topics:
Major tournaments - The Players Championship - World Golf Championships - PGA Tour - PGA European Tour

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Each player's personal ranking is calculated from the ranking points he has obtained over the previous two years. Firstly, his scores from all the tournaments he has played in are scaled down over a two year period, with one eighth of the points awarded for each tournament deducted every three months in order to give priority to recent form. The player's adjusted scores are then totalled, and this total is divided by the number of ranking tournaments in which he has participated over the previous two years, subject to a minimum denominator of forty tournaments. The resulting averages for all players are put into descending order to produce the ranking table. This means that the player who has obtained most cumulative success does not necessarily come top of the rankings: it is average performance levels that are important, and some golfers play substantially more tournaments than others. New rankings are released every Monday.

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