Breakfast Ball #9: Much Ado About Rankings

Another week, another weather delay on the PGA Tour. It has been a difficult start to year for the Tour, which is gearing up for some of its busiest weeks on the calendar.

In This Week’s Newsletter:

How did the Official World Golf Ranking come to be? Is it still a suitable measure of golf success?

If you were asked the names of the people who have had the biggest influence on men’s golf, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, and Tiger Woods are probably some of the names that come to mind. One name that would rarely get mentioned but deserves inclusion is Mark McCormack.

McCormack was instrumental in the commercialization and growth of golf as an agent and promoter. His big break came when he agreed to be Arnold Palmer’s exclusive agent in 1959. Players did not get significant monetary compensation for brand partnerships at the time, instead getting free product and small fees. Within three years of bringing McCormack on board, Palmer’s annual earnings had jumped from $50,000 to $500,000 as he renegotiated contracts and gave the players more power than ever before. McCormack founded IMG to represent athletes across sports, and the company was eventually sold for $2.3 billion in 2013.

However, McCormack’s biggest (and perhaps unintended) influence in golf came in a different form. The McCormack ranking was an unofficial ranking of golfers published once a year from 1968 to 1985. It took results from professional tours around the world over a three year period and gave players points based on their finishing positions. Prior to 1986, the R&A granted places in The Open on a tour-by-tour basis, which made it difficult for players who competed in multiple tours to qualify for the tournament. When they looked for a solution to the problem McCormack presented his ranking system, and it was adopted in 1986.

Ever since then, places in the majors and Ryder Cup teams have been granted based on the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR). While there was debate about whether its method was 100% correct, there was never any doubt that the best players in the world would play at the best events. However, when the OWGR rejected LIV Golf’s application for ranking points in October 2023, this changed.

The OWGR has valid reasons for rejecting LIV’s approach: the tour is mostly closed, not allowing players to qualify for each of its events and guaranteeing cards for certain players each year regardless of their performance in the previous season. The tournaments also have only 54 players (vs. ~140 in a PGA Tour event), are played over three days instead of four, and there is no cut. It would be much easier for a player inside LIV’s closed tour to get OWGR points on a weekly basis, making it very difficult for the OWGR to grant them points based on the current format.

As a result, we have a serious problem. Golf fans are simply not guaranteed to watch the best golfers at every major event. There is likely to be 13 LIV players at the Masters this year, including this week’s winner Joaquin Niemann who needed a special invite to play - it was just announced that he has received an invite to the PGA Championship too. LIV players can play in qualifiers for The Open and The US Open, but they cannot qualify for majors by playing in LIV events.

I have little sympathy for the players; they made the decision to move to LIV and have pocketed significant amounts of money in doing so (Niemann won $4M this weekend). The people I have sympathy for are the fans, who just want to watch the best golfers in the world go head-to-head. LIV needs to change its format in an open conversation with the OWGR, an independent entity with shared responsibility for a resolution. Otherwise, we are set for a fragmented landscape that benefits nobody.

Austin Eckroat wins his first PGA Tour title ahead of Lowry and Skinns, Joaquin Niemann wins LIV Jeddah

Austin Eckroat won the Cognizant Classic in a Monday finish after the event was delayed due to weather on Sunday. It was a first PGA Tour title for the 25-year-old, who was teammates with Viktor Hovland at Oklahoma State. Eckroat finished three shots ahead of Erik Van Rooyen and Min-Woo Lee in T2, and four shots ahead of a group including Shane Lowry and David Skinns, who went into the final round tied for the lead with Eckroat.

Lowry will be particularly disappointed with his performance. This is the third year in a row he has finished in the top five at this tournament, and while that should be seen as a positive result, he should have had the upper hand given his past experiences. On the other hand, this was David Skinns’ first ever top 25 on the PGA Tour after missing the cut in each of his first four events of 2024. He will take encouragement from this week and hopefully build on it as we go into a busy stretch on tour.

Other Europeans in the top 25 included Alex Noren (-12, T9), Martin Laird (-12, T9), Victor Perez (-11, T16), Matt Fitzpatrick (-10, T21), and Rory McIlroy (-10, T21). Stephan Jaeger’s streak of 27 tournaments without missing a cut ended as he finished one stroke outside the cut line.

Joaquin Niemann continued his great start to 2024 with a win at LIV Golf Jeddah by four shots. This was the second win of the year for the Chilean, who was given a special invitation to play in the Masters due to his recent form. Niemann will be a popular choice for a victory in Augusta on the second weekend in April due to his hot start this season. His best performance there to date was a T16 finish last year.

Jon Rahm and Adrian Meronk were the best of the Europeans, finishing six and seven shots back at -11 and -10 respectively. It was a forgetful weekend for them after finishing day one in the lead at -8. Meronk was assessed a one shot slow play penalty during the final round, which ended up costing him around $240,000 in prize money.

Other Results & News:

• American Jordan Gumberg won the SDC Championship on the DP World tour, overcoming Robin Tiger Williams (yes, that is his real name) in a playoff

  • There were a number of Europeans in top top 10 including Connor Syme, Andy “Beef” Sullivan, and 2014 Ryder Cup team member Jamie Donaldson

• Sergio Garcia wants a place back on the European Tour to get to the 2025 Ryder Cup, but will have to pay steep fines to get one

Coming up this week on Tour:

• The PGA Tour has its next signature event with the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill

  • There will also be a second tier event on the tour with the Puerto Rico Open

• The DP World Tour finishes its international swing with the Jonsson Workwear Open

• LIV’s next event in Hong Kong takes place 7,643km from this week’s event in Saudi Arabia