Much goes into world rankings
System has been tweaked since it began in 1980s
We find ourselves one week into the final month of 2020. Normally the professional golf scene is relatively quiet in December, but because of all the schedule adjustments from the earlier part of the calendar year, there is still a lot of golf out there being played. The LPGA Tour is in Texas this weekend for the playing of the Volunteers of America Classic. Next week the top women professionals head to the Champions Golf Club in Houston for the playing of the
Women’s United States Open.
The season-ending LPGA Tour Championship will be held in Naples, Florida from Dec. 17-20. The European Tour is in South Africa this week for the playing of that nation’s National Open while its season-concluding DP World Tour Championship will be contested next week in Dubai. The Champions Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour have concluded their seasons.
The PGA Tour is playing its final event of the year in Mexico at the Mayakoba Golf Classic. The Mayakoba is normally held during the second week of November, but they moved their tourney back to the first week of December to accommodate the rescheduling of the Masters. Mayakoba is one of those relatively new tour events that first came into play in 2007. It is a B-level event on the PGA Tour and it usually attracts a number of journeymen and rookies looking to make their mark on the big boy circuit.
However, there are top-flight linksters who are in the field this year at Mayakoba. Four-time major winner Brooks Koepka is part of the field. He has struggled with his game since the PGA Championship in August and is looking for a solid performance to conclude the year. Justin Thomas is also in the field. He plays in more tournaments than most topnotch golfers, so it’s really not a surprise to see him this week in Mexico. Another big name in the field this week is Rickie Fowler. Like Koepka, Fowler has struggled with his game of late. Most importantly, Fowler is looking four months down the line to next April’s Masters at Augusta National. At the conclusion of this calendar year, the top 50 golfers in the World Golf Rankings automatically receive an invite into the Masters. Prior to the start of play Thursday at Mayakoba, Rickie was in 49th place in the world rankings. He needs to have a decent week in Mexico to at least maintain his status among the world’s top 50.
In the 160-year history of major championship golf, the official World Golf Rankings are a relatively new addition to the game. It has only been around since 1986. In the early 1980s, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, those blue-coated aristocrats who run the British Open, had issues with its field at the Open Championship. They had a hard time assessing who deserved an invite into their championship. Too many of the European Tour’s top golfers such as Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, and Sandy Lyle were competing on multiple tours in Europe, America, South Africa and Australia. Journeymen who were playing exclusively on just one