Resumption of OWGR ruffles feathers of European Tour players
By Tim Letcher
The return of the Official World Golf Rankings is causing some issues among European Tour players
It was announced on Wednesday that the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) would start back up next week, after the rankings were frozen when the golf world stopped in March due to the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent worldwide pandemic. The decision to resume the rankings seemed to make sense, with the PGA Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour both returning to action next week.
While the decision barely made a ripple in the United States, players who are regulars on the European Tour were furious with the decision. The way they see it, the U.S. players are getting a jump start on the Euros, who won’t resume playing again for nearly a month.
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According to Golf Digest, European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley sent a memo to the Euro players describing his disgust with the OWGR’s decision, which would negatively affect the players on his tour. The European players responded with their own frustrations.
Among the Euros who were unhappy with the decision was former Ryder Cupper Andrew Coltart. In response to the announcement made by the European Tour, Coltart tweeted “For those wondering, that’s one month before play resumes in the U.K. on the European Tour.”
France’s Mike Lorenzo-Vera agreed with Coltart. “What an unfair decision,” Lorenzo-Vera tweeted. “Well done @OWGR Ltd!!! Thanks a lot!!!”
Austrian Bernd Wiesberger, who is in the running for the European Ryder Cup team, was in step with Lorenzo-Vera. “Agreed! Either all Tours are playing for points or none!”
The official statement from the OWGR seemed to address that point
“With competition on the other eligible tours not restarting at the same time, many players will not have the opportunity to compete for ranking points until a later date,” the OWGR said in the statement. “The averaging formula used in the calculation of the ranking will help to mitigate any resulting impact, be it positive or negative to a player’s ranking.”
The one thing that everyone seems to agree on is the fact that the rankings for the World Golf Championship events and the majors were frozen at the time of the suspension of golf. That’s an idea that players and tour executives all over the world are all on board with doing.
Nothing has been normal during this worldwide pandemic and the resumption of the OWGR falls right in line with the rest of everything that has happened in the last three months. However, to the credit of the OWGR, there’s really no equitable way to restart, since there is no uniform start date among the world’s tours.
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Think about this – it wouldn’t be fair to players on the PGA Tour and the KFT to not be given credit for their play at the Charles Schwab Challenge next week. That’s basically the opposite end of what’s actually going to happen.
While the European Tour players are upset with the outcome, there’s not much that can be done. In the meantime, players on the PGA Tour and KFT will attempt to make their own moves while they can.