Jon Rahm held a press conference in Dubai ahead of the DP World Tour Championship. He began by presenting the Spaniard with honorary life membership and ended with him laughing about the Official World Golf Ranking.
The 28-year old has been a great speaker and one of the most influential golfers over the past few years. Wednesday was no exception.
“I will be as blunt and direct as possible. The OWGR is absurd right now, I believe. Laughable. Rahm said, “Laughable.” “It is absurd that the (PGA Tour’s RSM Classic), which doesn’t have any top 20 players in the world, has more points than this tournament where seven of them are top 20, it seems. Wentworth was less successful than Napa and had players in the top 10 of the world. This is absurd.
38.38 points will be awarded to the OWGR project that was this week’s winner at RSM Classic in Sea Island. Georgia. Projections show that the winner of the DP World Tour Championship will receive 21.82.
“I can understand their efforts to increase the field depth, but the tournament is made better by having the best players around the world. He said that he didn’t care about the system. They have made a huge mistake. While I believe some aspects might be beneficial, I feel they have devalued certain players’ worth.
“Depth in field does not necessarily mean a better tournament. I could go on. They have erred on the side of caution in this regard.
Rory McIlroy explained in blunt terms the differences between this week’s PGA tour and DP World tour events during his press conference.
“Yeah. So when you compare two fields, you have a 50-man field in Dubai and a 144 man field in Georgia. McIlroy stated that 90 players are needed to increase their field’s strength based on how strengths of the field are calculated. This is why the RSM has 39 points while this has 21 points. The reason the RSM has 39 points is that the RSM winner must beat 139 other men. Only 49 guys are required to win this game. It’s a more fair system.
McIlroy’s Ryder Cup teammate is not pleased.
“But would it be better to win a tournament if you had the No. Rahm asked. Rahm replied, “I believe it’s more valuable to beat the best players in this world.” Many people would agree with me and I believe it should reflect that.
Rahm, who has seven wins on PGA Tour and eight on DP World Tour, freely admits that the math used to calculate point values is beyond his pay grade. He also doesn’t know how to fix it.
Rahm said that while he understood what they were trying do, “I think they missed the mark.”
Rahm is not the only player to criticize the OWGR this season, but most of the criticisms have come from professionals. LIV Golf, a new series that Greg Norman has started and is backed by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, has been fighting to earn points since its inception. After the circuit applied in July for accreditation, none of LIV’s eight first events earned OWGR point. To try to force the circuit to receive points, it formed a strategic alliance to the development MENA Tour. LIV players such as Patrick Reed and Graeme McDowell all called out the ranking system.
“I believe that a lot people are against (LIV), having world ranking points. Rahm stated that while I am not against it, there should be adjustments. If your requirement is for 72 holes and a cut to be world-ranked, then you might not award them all the points. They aren’t fulfilling all requirements.
