the mystery of the world golf rankings
I confess I don't know how they compute the World Golf Rankings. It's a ranking system that seems more complicated than the one for making the U.S. Ryder Cup team (at least in the past). A lot of people are asking, How did Tiger regain No. 1 this year after winning 2 tournaments after Vijay had won 10 tournaments last year? After all, Vijay did win the Sony this year. So in the past two years, Vijay is beating Tiger in total victories, 11-3. How did Tiger already catapult back over Vijay, leading now 12.27 to 11.79?
Frankly, these are all good questions. But maybe this ranking system should be thrown out the window. Right now, Tiger is playing like the No.1, and Vijay's not. Frankly, Phil (who is ranked a distant fourth at 9.11) is playing like the No.2 (if not almost No.1). Obviously the World rankings accumulate from year to year, but it still doesn't explain how Tiger regained No. 1. To me, these World rankings are pretty meaningless.
4 Comments:
There's a complete explanation of the ranking system on the Official World Golf Ranking site, although admittedly it is pretty complex and confusing. The rankings take into account the last two years of play, which I think is a good idea since you don't want to base it just on who is the hottest player at the current moment. The #1 player in the world should be someone who can reach an exceptional level of play AND sustain it over a prolonged period.
As far as Tiger getting back to #1, it looks like this has a lot to do with the fact that he simply hasn't been playing as many tournaments as some others. In 2004, for example, he played 19 tournaments compared to Vijay's 29. Since the rankings are based on average points per match, the fact that Vijay won so many is deceptive. You can win more by playing more matches but this doesn't help your ranking. Of course, you could dispute how fair this is, but it's the way the system works right now.
Matthew, excellent analysis. The number of tournaments played seems a huge factor. But that still doesn't explain the proportional weighting of victories in the past 2 years, which seems pretty 1-sided for Vijay: 11 victories (including 1 major) to Tiger's 3 (with no majors). You're right there's a question whether this kind of "fuzzy math" makes sense.
I know you don't rate the Eurotrash tour, Ernie has just won his second in two weeks.
It is also the first time since Vijah in 2001 that someone has gone back-to-back in Europe.
Surely he should be there somewhere?
Have not looked at the world rankings for a year or so but there are three golfers clearly ahead of teh rest in any realistic rating calculation (ie 50 % past 12 months, 25% previous 12 months, 25% previous 12 months) and they are Woods. Singh, Mickelson.
There is a gap of about 2 shots per tournie to the next 4; Perry, Furyk, Verplank and Goosen.
Els just scrapes into the ten. We ahve rated golfers for years and have 8,000 rated.
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