World Rankings

WORLD RANKINGS
FORMULA FOR SUCCESS
The top of the world rankings have been more volatile than ever before in recent
weeks. Denis Hurley investigates how the system decides the world’s best player.
McILROY
1 1 1
1
McIlroy reigns
By August 9th, he’s
been number one
for 52 consecutive
weeks, but he hasn’t
played since the US
Open due to an
ankle injury.
Spieth overtakes
The American moves
to the top of the world
rankings for the first
time with his runnersup
finish at the US PGA
Championship.
SPIETH
2 2 2 2
Day’s first major
The Aussie holds off Spieth in
the US PGA Championship to
go from 5 to 3 in the world.
A topsy-turvy fortnight
McIlroy regains the top spot even though he
isn’t playing, when Spieth misses the cut at The
Barclays. Spieth retakes the summit the next
week despite another MC to McIlroy’s T29.
Another big win
Day wins the The Barclays in
the FedEx Cup Play-offs to
close the gap to McIlroy to
just 0.9 of a point.
3
3
3
3
9 AUG
DAY
16 AUG 23 AUG 30 AUG 6 SEP

Resting to the top
McIlroy again replaces
Spieth at the top the
following week even
though neither of them
play due to the FedEx Cup
Play-offs rest week.
1 1
2 2
3 3
Third number one
in three weeks
Day wins the BMW
Championship to climb to the
top of the world rankings for
the first time in his career.
FedEx champion
Spieth’s Tour Championship victory earns him a $10 million
bonus and thrusts him back to the top of the world.
13 SEP 20 SEP 27 SEP
When the idea of this
article was first
discussed back in mid-
August, Jordan Spieth
was on the verge of
taking over from Rory McIlroy at the top
of the Official World Golf Ranking
(OWGR). The young Texan achieved that
by finishing runner-up to Jason Day at the
US PGA Championship, while McIlroy
finished down the field in 17th place. But
no one could have predicted the
rollercoaster ride that was to come as the
title of World No.1 changed hands six
times in just seven weeks.
Spieth’s initial reign was short-lived,
lasting just two weeks before a missed cut
at The Barclays enabled McIlroy to regain
the lead without even playing in the
tournament. The pair continued to
exchange the top spot in unusual
circumstances for the next three weeks.
Then Jason Day joined the party.
While McIlroy and Spieth were
swapping turns at the top of the ranking
without actually setting the world on fire
with their golf, the Australian was tearing
it up. Three victories in a five-week period
from mid-August to the third week in
September saw him reach number one for
the first time. Day’s position at the peak of
world golf only lasted one week, however,
as Spieth rediscovered his game and his
putting to dominate the Tour
Championship, win the FedEx Cup and
finish the PGA Tour season as
World No.1.
As entertaining as this all has
been to watch, it does beg the
question: How and why did so
many changes result and what,
in particular, causes the
anomalies of changes
without the participants
playing? The answer is, as
you would probably imagine, rather
complicated. In layman’s terms, however,
the OWGR is calculated on a two-year
rolling system, which awards and deducts
points from a player’s tally each week. This
means that during any given week, a player
will receive points for their performance,
while the points from two years ago are
deducted. Despite missing the cut at the
Deutsche Bank, Spieth lost fewer points
than McIlroy, who would have needed a
top-10 finish to stay number one. The
following week, McIlroy’s loss was less
severe than Spieth’s and so he was able to
pass him again.
The OWGR is the brainchild of
Mark McCormack, the founder of
IGM, and was introduced at the 1986
Masters at Augusta. Bernhard Langer
December 2015 Golf World
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