World Rankings Update for 2008

The races to stay on top of the world has gotten tighter for both men and women to kick off the first PDGA World Rankings in 2008. Ken Climo holds on to number 1 with a whisker thin 0.04 points less than David Feldberg after David closed the gap with his record breaking final round unofficially rated at 1095 in The Memorial.

David Feldberg and Ken Climo at The 2008 Memorial

Valarie Jenkins’ fine play since her Worlds victory and recent triumph at The Memorial pulls her ever closer to toppling Des Reading. Reading won’t give it up easily having held a tight grip on number 1 since we started the PDGA World Rankings two years ago. Des has been battling shot for shot and has been right there in second in the last three big events Val’s won. Des overall tournament play has kept her rating best in the World and currently provides just the slightest edge over Val in overall ranking points.

Carrie Berlogar has been steady in the top 5 for several years. Is she due to break out in 2008? Angela Tschiggfrie lead for most of Worlds last year. She hasn’t played a big event since Women’s Nationals. Will she be back to challenge this year? Elaine King is always dangerous, especially on courses that suit her game. She hasn’t been able to get to as many big events as the other top 5 women but her win at the 2007 Women’s Nationals means she still has a say in who will be on top.

Feldberg is so close to number 1 that had he made one more putt at the USDGC or Worlds, or Climo missed one at Players Cup or Memorial, Feldberg might be on top by a whisker. These guys are that close. I know they can remember several putts that luckily stayed in or unfortunately bounced away, just like all of us can.

If the rest of David’s rated rounds in 2008 thru March stay even close to his stellar ratings at the Memorial, he might pass Jesper Lundmark’s rating (currently second in the world) in the April update. That slight change would move him to the top in the May PDGA World Rankings. For Nate Doss, Steve Rico and the rest chasing Climo and Feldberg including the resurgent Barry Schultz, the formula is “simple” - they’ve just got to start beating not one but both of them. The Japan Open in June is their next major opportunity.

Two things are new in the process for calculating World Rankings in 2008. The first is the addition of The Memorial to the big events included. Although The Memorial is not a major Championship, it’s usually the largest NT event for Open fields. More importantly, it’s an event that is positioned at a time in the year with no other Championship events nearby. Most Championships included so far have been between July and November with the Japan Open in June every other year. We wanted to get another event included at a different time to balance the year and keep up the excitement for both players and fans with a regular supply of updates. The Scandinavian Open will substitute for the European Open this year so we don’t lose an overseas event in the mix.

The second change is how ratings are handled. It used to be that a player just one rating point behind five other players with the third best rating, would get 8 points for being 8th in the calculation (fewer points is better). But they may have only been four rating points behind the top rated player. In the new calculations, players will get points for ratings based on the better of two values: (1) the position the player is behind the top player such as 8th in this example, (2) a calculation involving the difference in rating points between the player and the top player divided by two. In this example, that would only be 3 points which is much better than 8 and reflects how close in skill these players are.

Ratings will continue to diminish in percentage weight value in the ranking calculation as more big championship level events are added to the regular schedule. The more big events a player enters, the more their results in the events count toward their ranking than ratings. However, until we have enough events like ball golf where the top players around the world face each other on a regular basis, not just the top U.S. players, ratings will provide a way for players with top skills to still be included in the rankings. They just can’t get to the top without playing enough championship events.

Looks like we’ll see some new names in the rankings this year with the outstanding top level debut of young Paul McBeth out of California shining bright at both the Gentlemen’s Club and The Memorial. Liz Lopez from Texas should break into the Women’s top 35 soon if she keeps up her great start at The Memorial. And perhaps we’ll see the return of Courtney Peavy to the top tier in Open Women having taken a break for family. We’ve heard Kevin feels she’s the real “McCoy” in the women’s game (someone eventually had to say that). Should be a fun and interesting year ahead.