PGA Tour Pebble Beach Pro-Am highlights ‘shocking’ state of golf’s world ranking system, Asian Tour boss says
- Winner of pro-am will get 10 more Official World Golf Ranking points than the player who triumphs at PIF Saudi International
- Asian Tour CEO Cho Minn Thant also sits on rankings technical committee and said disparity was something that needed to be looked at
John Rahm has called them laughable, Cameron Smith believes they are in danger of becoming obsolete, and Asian Tour boss Cho Minn Thant has said he was “shocked” by the way golf world ranking points were allocated this week.
The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am traditionally has one of the weaker fields on the PGA Tour’s calendar, and this week the likes of Kurt Kitayama, world No 43, and Brandon Wu, world 197, are rubbing shoulders at the top of their respective leader boards with NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers and just-retired football star Gareth Bale.
But under the present system, the event earns the winner nearly 35 points towards their Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), 10 more than on offer at the Asian Tour’s PIF Saudi International, featuring the likes of major winners Cameron Smith, Brooks Koepka, and Phil Mickelson, as well as a host of other top players.
The counterargument is that the likes of Koepka, Mickelson and Sergio Garcia have dropped down the rankings because of their decision to join LIV Golf, meaning the PGA Tour can, in theory, claim to have a stronger field.
But, the pro-am event has even more points up for grabs than at the Dubai Desert Classic, where Rory McIlroy, world No 1, earned 29.4 points for his triumph over Master’s champion Patrick Reed.
Cho sits on the OWGR technical committee and said the group was “discussing the feedback” from players across the game, not just the world’s best.
