With professional golf on pause for the next several weeks, the rankings are also on pause. The governing boards responsible for the Official World Golf Ranking and the Rolex Women’s World Golf Ranking released a statement on March 20 that the rankings would effectively be frozen as they stand as tours around the world suspend competition amid a global pandemic.
A statement that appeared on the OWGR web site said rankings resumption information would be made available “in due course.”
As it stands, Rory McIlroy is the top-ranked male in the world while Jin Young Ko remains the top-ranked female. McIlroy and Ko are also the No. 1-ranked players in the Golfweek/Sagarin Professional Rankings, which will continue to be run each week.
The other factor that should be taken into account with the OWGR and Rolex Rankings freeze is the impact on Olympic team selection. The rankings are used to finalize the fields for that event. A statement from the International Golf Federation supported the rankings freeze and confirmed that June 22 would remain the cutoff.
“The qualification system for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games commenced on 1 July 2018 and will conclude on 22 June 2020 for the men and from 8 July 2018 through to 29 June 2020 for the women, with players accumulating World Ranking Points over a two-year ‘rolling’ period,” the statement read. “This has proven to be a fair and equitable system and despite the freeze, we believe that the system remains fair to all athletes who are vying for qualification to the Tokyo Olympic Games.”
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