When professional golf went on hiatus last month due to the coronavirus, rankings officials paused in place the Official World Golf Ranking and the Rolex Women’s World Golf Ranking. The R&A and USGA have now addressed how the current break in competition will be reflected in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. The two bodies have announced a pause in the ageing process for events on players’ records.
According to a statement from the governing bodies, the decision to pause the event ageing process “was made to ensure players who are unable to play are not unduly disadvantaged. During the ageing pause, a player’s average will not change unless their record has.”
A player’s position in the WAGR is based on events in a rolling 104-week window. The WAGR underwent an algorithm change at the start of the year designed to make the ranking a better indication of a player’s current form. Under the new method, only points from events within the most recent 52 weeks of a player’s record count at full value. From there, event points are reduced proportionately, approximately two percent, per week before their removal after 104 weeks.
The WAGR rankings will continue to be published each week to reflect any other changes. The rankings – and the competitive golf landscape in general – will continue to be monitored with the intent to restart the event ageing process from the point it was paused when golf returns.
Pauline Roussin-Bouchard, a freshman at the University of South Carolina, remains the top-ranked female amateur while Japan’s Takumi Kanaya, who was playing in the Masters this time last year as the reigning Asia-Pacific Amateur champion, tops the men’s ranking.
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