St Andrews, Scotland: Following the latest World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) Committee meeting, The R&A and The USGA have announced some changes to criteria that will come into effect on January 1, 2025.
The changes are designed to refine the ranking system to accurately reflect player performance and promote the growth of the game globally.
With the increase in events worldwide, there has been a noticeable rise in smaller tournaments with weaker fields. Many of these events have minimum field sizes but feature few, if any, ranked players.
As a result, a large portion of participants are unable to post scores that meet an elite standard, with a significant number of players not completing the competition.
To more appropriately rank players who compete primarily in these limited events, the following key changes will be implemented:
• The points allocated to events with a Power of 50 or less will be reduced by as much as a third.
• As such, the winner of these events, may not be awarded 6.5 points to become automatically ranked. However, if a player is the sole winner of a WAGR counting event, the player will earn ranked status regardless of the awarded points. The 6.5-point threshold will remain for all other events.
• The minimum size field for male and mixed gender events will increase from eight players to 16 players. Events with only women will maintain the minimum field size of eight players.
WAGR will continue to monitor the rankings to ensure the events included and the resulting ranks are appropriate to determine the proper ordering of the top amateurs globally.
As is standard practice, several lines of study continue to be pursued to ensure the accuracy and integrity of WAGR.
Additional criteria changes being implemented are as follows:
· 5.2.2.2; change will be adopted to the criteria for ranked players extending or reinstating their ranked status following giving birth. The request for extension or reinstatement must be received within 52 weeks of giving birth prior to returning to competition and the player’s status will now be protected for up to 52 additional weeks.
· 3.4.6 and 4.4.2 – change will be adopted to the criteria to clarify how WAGR handles any transition of gender. Eligibility to participate in Counting Events will be determined by the relevant Event Organiser. The status of Ranked Player is not portable from one set of Rankings to the other, whether it is men’s to women’s Rankings or vice versa. A Ranked Player may not be ranked in more than one set of Rankings at any time.
· Lastly there will be a change to section 4.1, with additional language highlighting the need for event organisers to embrace non-discriminatory practices.
Any questions about these updates should be directed to wagr@randa.org or wagr@usga.org
