What the OWGR “Being On Hold” Means

This year started like every other one, with golf events happening around the world, as they should.

The Sentry Tournament and the Sony Open, both in Hawaii, held in January and ended on a positive note, giving us all a lot to look out for in golf this year.

But by March, everything seemed quite the opposite and professional golf had to be put on hold due to the Coronavirus that forced human contact to be limited as much as possible, forcing people to stay indoors all over the world.

The Players Championship, which was the last professional game to be held in March, was cancelled, and all the participants had to share half of the prize money equally. The coronavirus pandemic had affected so many things, including the Official World Golf Ranking.

The OWGR is the ranking system of professional male golfers taking part in more than 20 tour events that take place around the world.

The unique thing about this system is that it views the golfer’s achievement under two years. The ranking is based on the average points a golfer has earned from an event under the years in view.

Back in February, Rory McIlroy overtook Brooks Koepka at the top position of the OWGR, for the first time in almost 5 years, with John Rahm coming in at the second position, while Koepka going down to the third position.

McIlroy was able to surpass Koepka despite not playing a game that week. What favoured him was the two-year period that is used to calculate the points. Koepka was out of play for a greater part of 2019, or, at least, not just as active as McIlroy, so by the time the ranking was adjusted, Koepka lost more points, while McIlroy gained a few, jetting him to the top position.

Suspending professional golf events from taking place around the world made it necessary for the OWGR to be paused. The reason for this is because a player’s position on the OWGR is also measured in weeks.

Keeping the ranking going with no play in action and no points being awarded seems like an unfair thing because the player’s points would add up or drop even when they are not playing.

Written by: Leon Osamor