Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings Update

Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings Update

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.”

USA Olympics tracker: Five Americans now ranked inside top 15

With her victory at the LPGA Drive On Championship, Austin Ernst moved up 19 spots in the Rolex Rankings to No. 14 in the world. It’s still a long way to Tokyo, but that jump inside the top 15 carries a great deal of significance. The same is true for Jennifer Kupcho, who moved up nine spots in the rankings to 12th with her second-place finish on Sunday in Ocala.

The maximum number of women who can represent the U.S. in the 2021 Olympics is four, and all four of those players must be ranked 15th or higher.

There are currently five American women ranked inside the top 15.

At the 2016 Games, Lexi Thompson, Stacy Lewis and Gerina Piller made up the U.S. Olympic Women’s Golf Team.

The women’s competition for the 2021 Olympics will take place Aug. 4-7 at Kasumigaseki Country Club. The cutoff to qualify is June 28, immediately following the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club.

Ernst joins good friends Jessica and Nelly Korda as the only winners so far in the 2021 LPGA season. There are 13 LPGA events scheduled between now and the qualification deadline, though that number could shrink if any of the three Asian events are canceled due to the pandemic.

“If you talk to anybody this year and they don’t mention playing the Olympics,” Angela Stanford said when asked about her goals, “then they’re lying. So I don’t want to lie to you. Playing in the Olympics is a dream for every athlete … that’s probably the long shot.”

Here are the top 10 Americans in the world as of Monday, March 8.

Solheim Cup captain Catriona Matthew keeping an eye on Leona Maguire’s progress

Leona Maguire was thrilled to see her off-season work pay-off and get a congratulatory text from Solheim Cup skipper Catriona Matthew after she secured her first LPGA Tour top-10 on US soil in the Drive On Championship in Florida.

The Slieve Russell star, 26, tied for sixth behind Austin Ernst at Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club to move to 14th in the Race to CME Globe Points list, second in the Rookie of the Year race and close to the top 100 in the Rolex Rankings when they are updated later today.

The Co Cavan star changed to graphite shafts in her irons during her short winter break and put a new driver into her bag and after following a tie for 16th in the Gainbridge LPGA with her first top-10 since last year’s Vic Open in Australia, she’s upbeat about contending for that elusive first LPGA Tour win in what is a crucial Olympic Games and Solheim Cup year.

“It’s nice to get off to a good start to the year,” Maguire said from her Lake Nona base in Orlando where pre-season practice rounds with the fellow Lake Nona members Annika Sorenstam, Anne Van Damme, Nasa Hatoaka and Lindy Duncan helped her chip away the winter rust.

“It’s always good to hit the ground running and nice to see the changes I made in the off season paying off so quickly. It doesn’t always happen so it’s nice they are making a difference already.”

The new KBS graphite shafts in her PING i210 irons have helped her hit the ball higher into firm greens and she’s also picked up nearly 20 yards off the tee thanks to the new PING G425 driver.

“The bit of extra length has definitely helped,” she said after averaging nearly 253 yards off the tee last week and playing the par fives in 12-under par.

“I was probably hitting it an extra 20 yards and when I played with Nelly Korda yesterday I was only about 10 yards behind her so that’s an added advantage. I played the par fives really well this week and was able to hit a few of them in two which made a big difference.

“The new irons with the new shafts are going higher and landing softer and with the new Bermuda greens last week incredibly firm in windy conditions there was a premium on hitting good irons and that’s something I did quite well.”

She has two weeks off before heading to the west coast swing but while she’s already in the field for the first Major of the year, the ANA Inspiration from April 1-4, she’s looking to push on and secure her place in the US Women’s Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco from June 3-7.

“The top-10 not already exempt in the Race to CME Globe on April 14 get in and I just missed out that way last year by one spot so if I can do that I will avoid a qualifier,” she said.

“There is also a world ranking cut off (top 75 on April 14 and May 17) but I will not look too deeply into that until closer to the date.”

Winning on tour is the goal but to get there she’s simply concentrating on putting herself in contention.

“The goal is to try and put myself in as many positions like that as I can,” she added.

“The difference from last year is that I finished strong over the weekends but didn’t get off to as good a start in events as I would have liked. Whereas this year I have started the first two days a lot better and that’s just gaining experience and getting used to the courses and how things work and having a bit more control over my irons has definitely helped.”

Making the European Solheim Cup team will depend on her results and she was happy to receive a text from the captain on Sunday.

“I got a text last night,” she said. “I played with Catriona in the summer in North Berwick and she has her hands full with everything that’s going on but it was nice to get her text. She said she’d be at the ANA so we will catch up there.

“The Solheim Cup is a bit out of my control, but the better I do, the better chance I have.

“I have to focus on doing that as well as I possibly can, and if I catch her eye, I catch her eye, and if not, we go again for two years’ time.

“There’s plenty of golf to be played between now and then, but we’ll see how it goes.”

As for the news that the under fire stockbroking firm Davy Group has paused its sponsorship programmes, including patronage of the National Yacht Club in Dún Laoghaire and the National Concert Hall as well as deals with Maguire and fellow Team Ireland golfer Ronan Mullarney, the Ballyconnell native and her agent at Modest Golf! Management had no comment.