Capelle On Golf

The World Golf Rankings are the game’s most quoted and respected barometers of golfing supremacy. Still, they are not without their quirks. One of them could be called the Minimum Divisor Rule. A player’s points are divided by no less than 40 no matter how many events a player competes in over the 24 month ranking period.

Over the current ranking period Tiger Woods has accumulated 835.36 points, which gives him a WGR of 20.88. But wait! He actually played in only 34 events. So, if a divisor of 34 was employed, his ranking would be 24.57, or nearly four points higher than the published number!

Less is Much More
It’s true that Tiger’s WGR suffers from the arbitrary divisor. On the other hand, there are several reasons why he achieves such a high ranking that go beyond his otherworldly skills. 1) He plays almost exclusively in the point rich events. 2) In most of the events that he plays in, he derives the Tiger Bonus from being in the field (the points are higher) even though he obviously doesn’t have to beat himself. 3) He limits his schedule for several good reasons (which is another story). If he played in events on courses that he doesn’t like, and that offer fewer points, those results would hurt his rankings. Historically this has been the case in every year except for his monstrous 2000 season ending rankings.

In sum, Tiger’s less is more approach to schedule management helps him rack up the points in a limited number of extremely well chosen events, but it hurts him on the divisor side of the equation. On balance, however, the boost he gets in performance from practicing more and playing less seems to work to his advantage in the WGR.

Most of the other members of the top 11 in the WGR employ a more is less strategy. Their sizeable number of appearances over the last 24 months enable them to pick off some decent sized points in non-Tiger attended events, but those huge divisors also put a lid on the upward progress of their WGR.

Appearances in the Last 24 Months
1 Tiger Woods - 34
2 Phil Mickelson - 43
3 Ernie Els - 57
4 Steve Stricker - 42
5 Adam Scott - 50
6 K.J. Choi - 58
7 Justin Rose - 49
8 Jim Furyk - 50
9 Rory Sabbatini - 50
10 Padraig Harrington - 58
11 Vijay Singh - 61