At the end of 2023, the USA enjoys an overwhelming superiority in the OWGR rankings. 31.2% of the top 1000 players are from the country, 227 more than the next best. England (5), Sweden (7), France (9), and Spain (10) are the only four European countries within the top ten. And still, Europe bested their neighbor over the Atlantic in this year’s Ryder Cup.

Since OWGR announced the changes last year, there has been growing criticism that the system favors the PGA Tour players and, in turn, American golfers. As many analysts pointed out, the PGA Tour events receive more weightage. Whereas, other events, despite having a stronger field, often suffer at the hands of the OWGR bias. Most recently, the DP World Tour Championship with three of the top four players on the field, received 40% fewer points than the PGAT’s RSM Classic.

USA’s OWGR dominance worth little on the course

The OWGR table reveals a massive US supremacy, with over one-third of the top 1000 players coming from the USA. The 312 players in the top 1000 is an increase of 43 from last year. The list is topped by USA’s Scottie Scheffler. Additionally, six of the top ten and eleven of the top 20 plates in the OWGR standings are from the USA. 

After the USA, two Asian nations top the chart. Japan is represented by 85 players, whereas 70 of the top 1000 players are from South Korea. The Republic of South Africa and England round off the top five with 67 and 63 players respectively. 

However, the USA’s dominance didn’t reflect on the greens as the Marco Simone outing evinced. “As anticipated there’s a sudden, huge increase in US players compared to last years (sic). But the reality is very different, as the battle in Rome showed us,” wrote OWGR guru, Nosferatu, on their X (formerly Twitter) handle. Europe thrashed the USA in a thumping 16.5-11.5 victory. Moreover, the two top players of the USA, Scottie Scheffler (OWGR 1) and Brooks Koepka (OWGR 17) were humbled by Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland in a record-breaking 9&7 loss.

OWGR faced a massive backlash a few months back when it awarded the RSM Classic, a field rating of 225.25 points reserving 38.74 points for the winner. Whereas, the DP World Tour Championship got 153.77 points, with the champion getting 27.71 points. The points giving authority brought in a new change most recently to address the disparity between limited-field events and full-field events.

A change that doesn’t change much

The OWGR announced that it has changed the points structure to address the disparity in the points distribution curve. As per the new rules, the limited-field events with 80 players or less will have more points on offer for the champions. Moreover, the bottom 15% of players will not receive any points in the no-cut events. 

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This was supposed to impact the PGA Tour’s signature events with a $20M prize pool and a field of 70-80 players. However, Nosferatu in a separate tweet revealed that in 2021 WGC-FedEx St. Jude, the winner, Abraham Ancer, received 74 points whereas, seven players didn’t get any points. This time, the new rules will get around 73.5 points, with nine players missing on the points. Virtually, very little will change despite a formal announcement of the same.

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