World & Continental Rankings: Yearend 2012

The Yearend 2012 World & Continental Rankings have been posted. There were few changes from the Dec 2012 rankings with Will Schusterick retaining his top position. Valarie Jenkins and Catrina (Allen) Ulibarri ended up tied at the top of the World Rankings for women. They had been ever so close in the last half of the year with Catrina having slightly better U.S. performances in 2012 and Valarie doing well on the International stage and maintaining the highest rating average ever recorded for a woman for one year.

It's important to remind readers that the World Rankings at yearend are done a little differently from the procedure throughout the year. Normally, more recent Majors are weighted a little more than older ones to give an idea who might be playing better more recently. However for yearend rankings only, the time weighting factor is removed so that Majors earlier in the completed year are not weighed any less than more recent Majors. So as you check out the Yearend World Rankings, any slight changes are likely due to the differences in weighting between the December 2012 update and this Yearend 2012 update.

The Yearend World Rankings also display the top rated player in each country at yearend. They are listed at the bottom of the men's and women's World Ranking PDF files. Both the men and women added one new country with a rated player during 2012. The men are now at 31 countries and the women at 21 countries with rated players.

The Yearend Continental Rankings have not changed at the top since the Dec 2012 update. Karl Johan Nybo and Ragna Bygde remain on top in Europe. Manabu Kajiyama and Mayu Nonaka remain on top in Oceanasia. Will Schusterick and Catrina Ulibarri remain on top in North America. Congratulations to all of our PDGA members who have finished on top at the end of 2012 whether in these World & Continental Rankings or your state and local yearend or series rankings. Good luck in the coming year.