Women's World Golf Rankings

The Women's World Golf Rankings, also known for sponsorship reasons as the Rolex Rankings, were introduced in February 2006. They are sanctioned by the five main women's golf tours and the organisations behind them: Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA Tour), Ladies European Tour, Ladies Professional Golfers' Association of Japan, Korea Ladies Professional Golf Association, and Australian Ladies Professional Golf, and also by the Ladies' Golf Union, which administers the Women's British Open.

The idea of introducing a set of women's rankings similar to the Official World Golf Rankings for men was developed at the May 2004 World Congress of Women's Golf, and was first planned for 2005,^[1] but then put back to 2006.

Calculation of the rankings

The rankings are based on performances on the five major tours and the Futures Tour, the official developmental tour of the LPGA, over a two-year period. Amateur players are eligible. The system for calculating the rankings is similar to that for the men's Official World Golf Rankings. Players receive points for each good finish on the relevant tours, with the number of points available in each event depending on the strength of the field, as determined by the competitors' existing rankings (when the rankings were introduced rankings were calculated for earlier periods; indeed the first ever set showed notional changes since the previous week). The only exceptions are the four LPGA majors and Futures Tour events, which have a fixed-point allocation. Rankings are tapered so the recent results are more important.

Original formula

When the rankings were first introduced in February 2006, a player's ranking as calculated in the above description was divided by the number of events played, with a minimum required events of 15 over the previous two years. In addition, players were required to play in a minimum of 15 eligible events over the previous two-year period to be included in the rankings.

Formula revisions

On 2 August 2006 the Rolex Rankings Board and Technical Committee announced following its bi-annual meeting two changes to the ranking formula.^[2]

1. The elimination of the minimum event requirement. Players would no longer be required to participate in fifteen qualifying events to be included in the rankings and could be included after playing in as few as one qualifying event. This change would also have the effect of permitting amateurs who had played well in one event to be ranked (e.g., Morgan Pressel, who finished second in the 2005 U.S. Women's Open, or Michelle Wie from age 13).
2. The introduction of a minimum divisor. Where previously a player's point total was divided by the number of events she played over the previous 104 weeks, now the player's point total would be divided by the greater of (i) the number of events played or (ii) 35. Thus, players with 35 or more events over the previous 104 weeks would continue to use the actual number of events played as the divisor, but players with fewer than 35 events would use 35 as the divisor.

Many commentators saw the latter change as directed at Michelle Wie, who at the time was ranked second in the world despite having competed in only 16 women's professional events in the two-year period. However, the chairman of the Rolex Rankings Technical Committee defended the change as one designed to make the women's rankings more comparable to the Official World Golf Rankings for men, which use a minimum divisor of 40 events.

On 16 April 2007, another modification in the formula was introduced. Instead of points being awarded on an accumulated 104-week rolling period, with the points awarded in the most recent 13-week period carrying a stronger value, points began to be reduced in 91 equal decrements following week 13 for the remaining 91 weeks of the two-year Rolex Ranking period rather than the seven equal 13 week decrements previously used.^[3] This modification did not have an immediate impact on the rankings.

Criticisms

When they were introduced the rankings attracted considerable criticism on two grounds.^[4] First, it was widely felt that members of the LPGA of Japan Tour were ranked too high, since few of them had competed successfully outside Japan. Second, the minimum of 15 events needed to qualify for a ranking was widely seen as having been selected purely to enable Michelle Wie to be highly ranked because she had played exactly that number in the preceding two years, while every other highly ranked player had played many more events. If the women's rankings used the same system used for the men's rankings –- that is a minimum number of events of one but a minimum denominator of 40 to calculate the average points per tournament – Wie would have been just outside the top 10. But under the women's ranking system where only players who had played a minimum number of events were included, if the minimum number of events had been set higher than fifteen, Wie would not have been ranked at all.

The August 2006 revised formula addresses the second criticism. The technical committee that administers the rankings urged patience with regard to the first criticism, since the continuing "strength of the field" weighting of tournaments may correct the issue without any technical changes being made.

Significance of the rankings

The rankings are used by each of the sponsoring tours to determine eligibility criteria for certain events. For example, 40 of the 144 places in the Women's British Open are currently awarded on the basis of the rankings—10 to LET members and 30 to LPGA members.^[5] Four of the 12 places in the European Solheim Cup team are allocated on the basis of the rankings.^[6]

Current top ten

As of 31 October 2011

Ranking	Change	Player	Country	Points
1		Yani Tseng	Taiwan	18.40
2		Suzann Pettersen	Norway	10.93
3		Cristie Kerr	United States	10.84
4		Na Yeon Choi	South Korea	10.01
5		Sun Ju Ahn	South Korea	8.90
6		Jiyai Shin	South Korea	8.32
7		Paula Creamer	United States	7.95
8		Ai Miyazato	Japan	7.25
9	1	Stacy Lewis	United States	7.21
10	1	Brittany Lincicome	United States	7.14

Change column indicates change in rank from previous week.
Notes

• On 12 January 2009, Annika Sörenstam, who was ranked 3rd the previous week despite having announced her retirement effective at the end of the 2008 season, was removed from the rankings. No official explanation was given for her removal. Sörenstam later posted in her personal blog that she asked to be removed.^[7]
• On 10 May 2010, one week after announcing that she was retiring from golf, Lorena Ochoa also voluntarily removed herself from the rankings. Her last position in the rankings was number 2 for the week of 3 May 2010.^[8]

World number ones

As of 31 October 2011

No.	Player	Country	Start date	End date	Weeks	Total weeks
1	Annika Sörenstam	Sweden	21 February 2006	22 April 2007	60	60
2	Lorena Ochoa	Mexico	23 April 2007	2 May 2010	158	158
3	Jiyai Shin	South Korea	3 May 2010	20 June 2010	7	-
4	Ai Miyazato	Japan	21 June 2010	27 June 2010	1	-
5	Cristie Kerr	United States	28 June 2010	18 July 2010	3	-
	Ai Miyazato	Japan	19 July 2010	25 July 2010	1	-
	Jiyai Shin	South Korea	26 July 2010	15 August 2010	3	-
	Cristie Kerr	United States	16 August 2010	22 August 2010	1	-
	Ai Miyazato	Japan	23 August 2010	24 October 2010	10	12
	Cristie Kerr	United States	25 October 2010	31 October 2010	1	5
	Jiyai Shin	South Korea	1 November 2010	13 February 2011	15	25
6	Yani Tseng	Taiwan	14 February 2011	current	38	38

Year end No. 1

Year	Player
2006	Annika Sörenstam
2007	Lorena Ochoa
2008	Lorena Ochoa
2009	Lorena Ochoa
2010	Jiyai Shin

Green shading indicates the player was No. 1 throughout the year.

Historical rankings

Annika Sörenstam of Sweden topped the first set of rankings, which was released on Tuesday 21 February 2006. Paula Creamer (United States); Michelle Wie (United States); Yuri Fudoh (Japan); and Cristie Kerr (United States) took the other places in the top 5. The top one hundred players in the initial rankings came from the following countries:

• 25: South Korea
• 23: Japan
• 21: United States
• 6: Australia, Sweden
• 5: United Kingdom (England 3; Scotland 2)
• 4: Taiwan
• 2: France
• 1: Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Philippines

Initial Top Ten 21 February 2006 Rank Player Country Ave. points 1 Annika Sörenstam  Sweden 18.47 2 Paula Creamer  United States 9.65 3 Michelle Wie  United States 9.24 4 Yuri Fudoh  Japan 7.37 5 Cristie Kerr  United States 6.94 6 Ai Miyazato  Japan 6.58 7 Lorena Ochoa  Mexico 6.10 8 Jeong Jang  South Korea 4.91 9 Hee-Won Han  South Korea 4.49 10 Juli Inkster  United States 4.11

Initial top ten after 2 August 2006 formula change 7 August 2006 Rank Player Country Ave. points 1 Annika Sörenstam  Sweden 17.41 2 Lorena Ochoa  Mexico 9.87 3 Karrie Webb  Australia 9.39 4 Paula Creamer  United States 8.13 5 Cristie Kerr  United States 8.04 6 Juli Inkster  United States 7.75 7 Michelle Wie  United States 6.83 8 Jeong Jang  South Korea 6.09 9 Yuri Fudoh  Japan 5.98 10 Ai Miyazato  Japan 5.79

See also

• LPGA Tour current money leaders
• Official World Golf Ranking – for male professional golfers
• World Amateur Golf Ranking – for male amateur golfers

References

1. ^ Golf Today (2004). "Women's World Rankings to begin in 2005". www.golftoday.co.uk. http://www.golftoday.co.uk/news/yeartodate/news04/womens_rankings.html. Retrieved 16 April 2007. 
2. ^ LPGA (3 August 2006). "Two modifications announced for Rolex Rankings". LPGA.com. http://www.lpga.com/content_1.aspx?mid=2&pid=7574. Retrieved 3 August 2006. 
3. ^ LPGA (9 April 2007). "Modification Announced to Rolex Rankings Calculations". LPGA.com. http://www.lpga.com/content_1.aspx?pid=10409&mid=4. Retrieved 16 April 2007. 
4. ^ Kelley, Brent (21 February 2006). "First Women's World Golf Rankings Stir Up Controversy". about.com. http://golf.about.com/b/a/245967.htm. Retrieved 3 January 2011. 
5. ^ "Entry Form, 2011 Ricoh Women's British Open: Rules and Conditions" (PDF). The Ladies' Golf Union. http://www.lgu.org/data/files/entry_2011_rwboconditions.pdf. Retrieved 29 July 2011.  See especially "7. Exemptions from Pre-Qualifying and Final Qualifying", pages 2–3.
6. ^ "Solheim selection process changes". BBC Sport. 18 April 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/golf/4918154.stm. Retrieved 3 January 2011. 
7. ^ Sörenstam, Annika (February 2009). "Annika's Blog February 2009". Annika Sörenstam. http://www.annikablog.com/annika-qa.html. Retrieved 2 March 2009. 
8. ^ UPI (10 May 2010). "Ochoa removed from women's golf rankings". UPI.com. http://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2010/05/10/Ochoa-removed-from-womens-golf-rankings/UPI-75091273507237/. Retrieved 10 May 2010. 

External links

• Official site with full list of all ranked players
• Official site with historical rankings of all players