Questions raised over world ranking points

BY NEVILLE IDOUR

There has been much disquiet and dismay at the disparity in the new world ranking points allocations. It all came to a head at the recent Yeangder TPC in Taiwan on the Asian Tour.

Australian Travis Smyth’s delight at winning his first Asian Tour title was diluted when he found out how few points he gained towards his world ranking.

Travis Smyth of Australia. (Photo by John Phillips/LIV Golf/Getty Images)

He amassed a trifling 2.28704 points. Hardly worth the effort. Don’t you just love the decimal points?

American Berry Henson who has been on the Asian Tour since 2011 finished tied third and received a whopping 0.6518 points. Not surprising he took to social networking service Twitter following that discovery.

Just to highlight the inequity of points now let us make some comparisons.

Guido Migliozzi received 18.54753 points for winning the French Open while Max Homa received over 40 points for his win at the PGA Fortinet Championship. A major championship winner receives 100 points. The 50th placed person at The Open Championship received more points than Smyth. Even the 11th placegetters in France received more points.

Smyth would have to win eight Asian Tour events to match one DP Tour event, 18 to match one PGA Tour event and 43 to match one major.

Lee Westwood made the point that someone on the various tour boards would have voted for the changes made. It is certainly food for thought and even more evidence of the stranglehold the PGA Tour has on the world of golf.