The Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings (WWGR) today announced a return to its “normal” historical ranking calculations beginning with tournaments staged the week of March 1, 2021. On March 20, 2020, the WWGR announced a pause in the rankings amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. On July 20, 2020, the WWGR implemented a temporary modification to the rankings to focus on the individual athlete and the weeks she competed. Under that modification, an athlete’s points and divisors did not change on weeks when she did not compete.
The WWGR Technical Committee has been monitoring this approach, tracking the frequency of play among the world’s top 400 players and the schedules of professional women’s tours globally. As tour schedules begin to normalize in comparison to previous years, the WWGR has taken the decision to resume the rankings as usual beginning this week.
What “normal” means:
- Points and divisors change and age for all athletes
- Points and divisors will change and age every week when an athlete competes and when she does not compete
- Weeks when an athlete does not compete count in the 104-week rolling period
- On weeks when no tournaments are played, the rankings continue to operate as normal, with points, divisors and rankings changing based on the 104-week rolling period for all athletes
“While it will take the rankings quite some time to level set to all athletes having the same 104-week period,” said Heather Daly-Donofrio, executive director of the WWGR, “The WWGR Board remains confident that this was the most fair way to manage the rankings and the athletes during this time. While there is no perfect solution, we believe we have followed an approach that is reasonable for athletes and also protects the integrity of the ranking system.”
COURTESY LPGA COMMUNICATIONS
