Greg Norman said a ranking system that accurately reflects the current state of men’s professional golf doesn’t exist. Shark might have forgotten to check TUGR. The new ranking system brings in a completely new methodology, one that eliminates all personal bias, as the founder emphasized on the Fairway to Heaven podcast.

Launched in 2022, the fledgling ranking system—the brainchild of a few golf fans who still have a full-time job—has stirred up quite a storm, especially when fans and analysts are scrambling for an alternative to OWGR. The current world ranking system doesn’t offer points to LIV Golfers. But TUGR totally obviates the need to look at the format or even the tournament, Jeff Bullock, the founder, explained. 

TUGR CEO explains his product

TUGR stacks the best against the best. Regardless of where they play. Unlike OWGR, where the player’s ranking will depend on the field’s strength, the founder said, “At TUGR, we don’t see tours, we see players.” More specifically, TUGR looks at head-to-head scores. If Player A has defeated Player B by one stroke and Player B has defeated Player C by two strokes, then A is three strokes better than C. 

The premise is simple. It might sound like the leaderboard of a particular tournament, and that’s what they are aiming for. The above model of judging the third golfer with the first through how both performed against B allows them to rank players who have never played against each other in reality. 

Relying on advanced cloud computing and matrix is a more logical method than allocating arbitrary points, Bullock told Jerry Foltz of the Fairway to Heaven podcast. “And so what it just ends up being a more purely out output because it’s based on performance not based on a made up point system that someone created, and then they have to figure out weightings that may or may not be accurate.”

Bullock offers Dean Burmester (OWGR 130th, Data Golf 38th). example. The South African has played against 800 different golfers in the last 18 months in multiple Asian Tour and DP World Tour events outside LIV. The PGA Tour average is 450.

So, the four-time DP World Tour winner creates links with other golfers, which only strengthens the matrix. Burmester is ranked 30th in TUGR. Bullock believes they have an “unbiased, all-inclusive, and accurate way,” as they don’t allocate the points separately. So, the question is, can TUGR become the OWGR alternative for LIV Golf?

Does TUGR solve the Major problem for Greg Norman?

The top three are pretty much the same everywhere. Scottie Scheffler ranks one with a relative score of 0.00, quite literally, setting the benchmark for others. The first four players are all from the PGA Tour. But Jon Rahm finds a spot on the fifth. His Legion XIII teammate, Tyrell Hatton, was ranked at 9. Only four others find a spot inside the top thirty. Talor Gooch, who recently got his PGA Championship invite, is one of them at 16. 

In OWGR, only two recent joiners, Rahm and Hatton, are in the top 10. Will Norman choose to highlight the TUGR rankings from now on? The problem is that TUGR is not recognized by any major organizers. It is well known that in golf, Majors move the needle. So, TUGR won’t do the job for the Great White Shark so far. But TUGR certainly offers an alternative point of view, with everyone pitted against each other.