He has “expressed his desire to play a full DP World Tour schedule in 2024 and has fulfilled all sanctions – both financial and tournament suspensions – that were imposed upon him for breaches of the Tour’s conflicting event regulation across 2022 and 2023” in a DP World Tour Statement.

The Austrian at the start of 2023 had his membership ceased, and was removed from the Race to Dubai, after he failed to comply with the Tour’s minimum counting event regulation for the 2023 season according to the DP World Tour.

His request for reinstatement has been granted by DP World Tour Chief Executive Keith Pelley, and will play under Category 11 for the 2024 DP World Tour season.

Wiesberger announced on X (formerly twitter) that he never resigned his membership and therefore is grateful for the opportunity to be able to play a full schedule once again starting in Dubai in January.

Last season on LIV Bernd finished in 41st place on the standings, putting him in the ‘Open Zone’ which is for players finishing the season in positions 25-44 who face potential trade or release by their teams.

Wiesberger is currently ranked 510th on the Official World Golf Ranking and had earned over 15 million euros on the DP World Tour since 2007.

Image: Getty

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The former amateur star fired a final round eight-under-par 62 to finish with a tournament total of 23-under and win by four shots from fellow LIV Golfer Bernd Wiesberger, who returned a 63.

Korean Jeunghun Wang and Sihwan Kim (guess where he also plays) from the United States tied for third, seven behind the winner. The result saw Sihwan return to the top of the Asian Tour Order of Merit list.

“This is amazing, just incredible,” said the rising star from Little Rock, Mississippi, who earned a cheque for $270,000.

“I have always been a huge fan of match play and that is kind of what it came to in the end, it was basically a two-man race. I just tried to keep matching what he was doing, I kept making a lot of putts. Fortunately, I was able to play better than Bernd, he’s a great player and it was really awesome to come out on top.”

The 24-year-old, who played on the golf team at the prestigious Georgia Tech University, won the US Amateur in 2019 and was part of the victorious American team at the Walker Cup the same year. He turned professional the following year and is a rookie on the Asian Tour this season.

Ogletree added: “It has been an awesome week. First time in Egypt. I got to experience everything the tourists do, I went to the Pyramids, we stayed at a great hotel and the golf course was spectacular. It has just been a really awesome. My first trip to Egypt is one that I will never forget.”

Wiesberger was attempting to win his third Asian Tour title and first in nine years but found Ogletree just too good.

“Yeah, I mean I take that [shooting a 63] going into Sunday in the last group,” said the 37-year-old, an eight-time winner on the DP World Tour. “You know, it wasn’t good enough to throw everything at him. A couple of loose bogeys but other than that I did as much as I could. He holed a lot of putts when I was in position to do so. He had it going on the greens today so fair play to him. I played a good round and can be proud of myself.

“It was nice, good to stay competitive, good feeling, good golf course and tried to hit a lot of good shots. Coming in with a nice result is always a bonus as well.”

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By Matt Smith
The DP World Tour gets rolling again with a double-header in Spain, beginning on Thursday with the ISPS Handa Championship in Tarragona. While East Asia has continued to suffer a lack of golf events due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, Spain — in this case — is definitely the beneficiary.

The latest addition to the calendar will be held at Infinitum Golf and was created to plug the gap created by the pandemic-enforced postponement of the tournament with the same name in Japan. It precedes the Catalunya Championship in Girona, which is another one-off event replacing the Volvo China Open.

So after a few weeks off and a jaunt to the Masters at Augusta National for the top players on the DP World Tour, it is a timely return to Spain to mark the 50th anniversary of the tour back where it all began.

The European Tour, as it was then known, started with the 1972 Spanish Open at Club Golf de Pals in Girona, where home stars Antonio Garrido and a certain Seve Ballesteros began the revolution of European golf.

Just like that first Spanish Open, the 2022 Catalunya Championship will also be held in Girona at the PGA Catalunya Golf and Wellness and help uphold a tradition that has seen Spain become a mainstay on the tour and a production line for some of the world’s best golfers.

But first up is the ISPS Handa Championship in Tarragona, where a whole host of stars will be chasing the $2 million purse and looking to be the first to get their name engraved on the inaugural trophy.

With no defending champion, it will be tough to select the favourites, but the likes of high-flying Austrian Bernd Wiesberger and Dane Thorbjorn Olesen will be leading a pack of homegrown talents in the shape of Dubai-based pair Adrian Otaegui and Adri Arnaus, Pablo Larrazabal — who already has a win on tour this season in South Africa — Jorge Campillo, Nacho Elvira and Alejandro Canizares.

Bernd Wiesberger

A host of champions on tour heading to Spain be familiar to Middle East golf fans. Scotland’s Ewen Ferguson, who claimed his maiden professional title at the recent Qatar Masters, will join Ras Al Khaimah’s two champions on the UAE Swing, Ryan Fox and Nicolai Hojgaard.

The Dane will liven up the party alongside twin brother Rasmus, and leading DP World Tour players also in the line-up include the likes of Alexander Bjork, Jamie Donaldson, Laurie Canter, James Morrison, Andy Sullivan, Matthew Jordan, Joost Luiten, Chris Paisley, Ross Fisher and Soren Kjeldsen.

Larrazabal, who won his sixth DP World Tour title at the MyGolfLife Open in March, will certainly be one to watch, while Ferguson will fancy his chances now he has a taste for victory after some near-misses.

The Infinitum Resort in Tarragona has been home to the final stage of DP World Tour Q School in recent years and that could help Canizares, who has a first and third over the Lakes Course in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

From the big guns, former Ryder Cup player and world No. 78 Wiesberger will be keen to get his season on track after no top-10 finishes from his five starts this season.

The Hojgaard twins can be unpredictable, but both have DP World Tour titles in the bag and will certainly produce fireworks. You can expect to see at least one of their names on the leaderboard at some point.

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The 36-year-old, who made his Ryder Cup debut at Whistling Straits last year, becoming the first Austrian to represent Team Europe, came agonisingly close to victory in last year’s AVIV Dubai Championship, missing out by a stroke to Joachim B. Hansen at Jumeirah Golf Estates and he’s aiming to go one step further Al Hamra Golf Club.

“I love playing in this part of the world and I’ve had some good results here, I’m just missing a win,” said Wiesberger, an eight-time DP World Tour winner.

“They really take good care of the players and the surroundings, everything is right there – the golf courses here make it a major golfing destination for a lot of people around the globe.

“They have great facilities and great golf courses and try to present them as challenging as possible for us which I prefer and therefore it’s always a good atmosphere for me. I feel comfortable and the weather plays its part as well so all that adds up to hopefully another enjoyable week here in Ras Al Khaimah.”

This week’s event, taking place from Thursday 3 to Sunday 6 February, will see Ras Al Khaimah become the third emirate to host a DP World Tour event and Wiesberger is relishing the opportunity to add another new playing experience to his CV on the stunning Al Hamra course.

“It’s nice to experience new challenges and new golf courses,” he said. “I heard nice things about Ras Al Khaimah, I’ve never personally been there and it’s a new territory for the majority of players so I’m looking forward to having another tournament in the UAE in our schedule.”

Despite never having played the course before, Wiesberger, who got 2022 off to a solid start with a tied 12thin the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship followed by a tied 24th in the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic, is confident that he has the game to overcome the Peter Harradine-designed track.

“To be honest I feel like I can adapt quickly so we’ll have a good idea about the course after a couple of practice rounds. It’s true that we don’t often come to complete new grounds on the Tour because most courses come back in loops over the years but I always felt that I have quick transition into different golf courses and adapt and see the opportunities and challenges that each one represents. I’m sure we’ll do just fine in Ras Al Khaimah as well.”

The post Wiesberger gunning for glory at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah will host a DP World Tour tournament for the first time from February 3-6, when some of the Tour’s biggest stars battle it out at the spectacular coastal venue of Al Hamra Golf Club, which has previously hosted three Challenge Tour events.

Willett, who triumphed at Augusta National when he won the Masters Tournament in 2016, is a two-time winner in Dubai, just 100 kilometres southwest of Ras Al Khaimah along the Persian Gulf, and is looking forward to visiting a new Emirate next month.

“I have some great memories from my time in the United Arab Emirates,” said the Englishman, who won his eighth title at the 2021 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, on his 34th birthday. “It’s a place I’ve always enjoyed visiting and I’ve obviously won twice in Dubai, so it’s exciting that we have a new region to visit and a new golf course to play on this year.

“We always receive a warm welcome when we play in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and I expect it’ll be the same when we visit Ras Al Khaimah in a few weeks’ time.”

Like Willett, Wiesberger will start his 2022 campaign with consecutive events in the United Arab Emirates, starting with the back-to-back Rolex Series events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai before playing in Ras Al Khaimah for the first time.

AALBORG, DENMARK – MAY 28: Bernd Wiesberger of Austria reacts on the 2nd hole during Day Two of Made in HimmerLand presented by FREJA at Himmerland Golf & Spa Resort on May 28, 2021, in Aalborg, Denmark. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

The eight-time European Tour winner made his Ryder Cup debut last September at Whistling Straits, becoming the first player from Austria to represent Team Europe.

“Last year was a great year for me, with the win in Denmark and then making my Ryder Cup debut,” said Wiesberger. “I’ve worked really hard since returning from injury in 2019 to compete at the biggest events in golf and I want to continue pushing myself as we start an exciting new era on the DP World Tour.

“I really enjoy playing golf in the Middle East, the only thing I’m missing there is a victory, so I hope to have a strong start to my season in the UAE.”

Last year, twins Nicolai and Rasmus Højgaard made history by becoming the first brothers to win in back-to-back weeks on Tour. Rasmus earned his third DP World Tour title at Omega European Masters and Nicolai won the DS Automobiles Italian Open the following week.

Also joining the field in Ras Al Khaimah are former Ryder Cup Captains Thomas Bjørn, who led Europe to victory at Le Golf National in 2018, eight-time European Number One Colin Montgomerie and three-time Major Champion Pádraig Harrington.

Al Hamra Golf Club previously hosted the European Challenge Tour from 2016 to 2018, with the Challenge Tour Grand Final taking place in 2018. The Peter Harradine-designed layout will host the DP World Tour in back-to-back weeks, with the Ras Al Khaimah Classic also taking place at Al Hamra Golf Club from February 10-13.

The post Masters champ Willett, Wiesberger and Højgaard brothers set to headline Ras Al Khaimah Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
Of course, they were playing a golf tournament at Wentworth this weekend. However, the BMW PGA Championship doubled as a game of Ryder Cup musical chairs. Five of the nine automatic qualifying spots for Team Europe were already locked up (Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood, Rory McIlroy, Paul Casey and Viktor Hovland) before the week started, with the other four to be decided by how the rest of the contenders finished in the European Tour’s flagship event.

Truth be told, two of those remaining places had essentially been sewed up, too, Tyrrell Hatton and Matt Fitzpatrick safely on captain Padraig Harrington’s team even after the former missed the cut in his title defence.

So it came down to Lee Westwood, Shane Lowry and Bernd Wiesberger fighting for the last two invitations. Westwood and Lowry started the week inside the top five on the World points list, which determined five of the automatic qualifiers. But if Wiesberger played well enough, he would creep into the top four of the European points list, grabbing the last spot there from McIlroy. McIlroy then would take one of the World points spot and force Westwood and Lowry to dual for the last position on that list.

Confusing? Perhaps. But exciting, too. Not to mention nerve-wracking.

On Sunday, Wiesberger played solid if not spectacular golf, shooting a closing even-par 72 that left him in tied for 20th place for the tournament, enough to get the 35-year-old Austrian inside the top five on the Euro points list and securing a place on his first Ryder Cup team.

Lowey, trying to make his first Ryder Cup team, similarly couldn’t get many putts to fall in his final round. Needing a finish somewhere in the top six to pass Westwood on the points list, a one-under 71 left the 2019 Open champion in a T-17.

That meant Westwood picked up the last automatic qualifying spot despite a horrendous final round. After making birdies on the opening two holes, the 48-year-old Englishman went bogey-double-double to finish the front nine in three over. On the 11th, he then made a triple-bogey 7 and stumbled home to a 77 and a T-71 finish.

“If there had been a buggy on the ninth tee I would definitely have taken it in,” Westwood said about how he felt with his game. “It was a combination of things frustrating me. I felt like I was playing better than the results were showing since the mid-part of the year. Even when you think you’ve turned a corner, golf gives you a good kicking now and again.”

Amazingly, though, it was still enough to make his 11th Ryder Cup team.

? CONFIRMED ?

The nine automatic #TeamEurope qualifiers heading to Whistling Straits. pic.twitter.com/bJAVg528Yy

— Ryder Cup Europe (@RyderCupEurope) September 12, 2021

The good news for the Lowry? He still has a chance to play in his first Ryder Cup as Harrington, his fellow Irishman, makes his three captain’s picks later on Sunday. Two are presumed to be reserved for Ian Poulter and Sergio Garcia.

Others on the shortlist would be Justin Rose, who shot a seven-under 65 in the final round to try to make one last impression for Harrington, and Victor Perez.

The post Europe’s nine automatic qualifying spots locked up appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

As for those playing, well, the greens are nightmare-inducing. Just ask Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger, who is playing in his sixth Masters this week and is attempting to make his sixth straight cut.

Wiesberger was well on his way to doing just that early in his round, having turned in one-under 35. Three bogeys at the 10th, 11th and 12th holes dropped him down to two over, though, and he was in need of a late spark. Opportunity knocked at the 15th, where he found the green in two and had 43 feet left for eagle.

That’s when disaster struck for the 35-year-old, as he watched his eagle effort zip past the hole, catch the slope and roll all the way into the pond in front of the green. All he could do was put his hand on his hip and hang his head in disgust:

Wow. Bernd Wiesberger had an eagle putt on 15 and put it in the water. So his next shot was a par putt from the same spot. pic.twitter.com/D1P8kd8mfl

— Cork Gaines (@CorkGaines) April 8, 2021

Like we said, nightmare-inducing.

Wiesberger took his penalty stroke and wound up hitting his par putt from the exact same spot as his eagle putt. Impressively, he put the par putt to tap-in range, escaping with a bogey. After making par at 16, he picked up a late birdie at the 17th and then parred 18 for a two-over 74, which is only five off the lead. Not bad considering the disaster at 15.

The post This pro’s eagle putt rolling into the water at the par-5 15th is pure nightmare fuel appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
David Horsey briefly had us on 59 watch, should really have shot 60 but was more than happy to sign for a course record-equalling 61 and the opening-round lead at the 3rd Saudi International.

The Englishman’s brilliant nine-under circuit of Royal Greens Golf & Country Club shocked no one more than the 35-year-old Englishman himself after he missed the cut in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai leading into the third leg of the Desert Swing.

“It’s a shock actually,” said Horsey who will take a one-stroke buffer over double Dubai champion Stephen Gallacher into Friday’s second round in King Abdullah Economic City.

No 59, but you’d take a 61

What a round @DaveHorsey!#SaudiIntlGolf | @Workday pic.twitter.com/yTXZI08ZNa

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) February 4, 2021

“I’ve been playing rubbish the last couple weeks. Didn’t feel like I controlled my ball the first two events. Yeah, sort of had a conversation with a pal back home last night, talking a few things through and [he] suggested something that I work on away from the tournament.

“Knowing me, I thought, well, can’t get any worse, so I may as well try it and here we are.”

Can you give us a hint?

“Really just how my body is moving, quite sort of technical really. It’s nice to have a feel you can sort of wake up and pick up straight away. Yeah, I didn’t really feel like I missed many shots. I holed a couple of nice, lengthy putts as well and it all adds up to 61.”

Sounds like a fascinating chat. Who is this friend? Your coach?

“Jacob Calum. Weirdly enough, he’s only 22, and he’s someone that I’ve helped out sort of as an amateur at my golf club. He’s turned pro now.” said Horsey who has four European Tour titles to his name, the last of them at the 2015 Made in Demark.

“So yeah, I tried to sort of help him as much as I can and he’s now returning the favour. He’s really knowledgeable. I’ve not got a coach now for about, well, pretty much a year, doing a lot of stuff on my own and yeah, lockdown last year, just chatting about stuff really. He sort of makes a few good points and knows the golf swing really well and it’s nice to bounce a few ideas off someone who plays as well.

“Coaches sometimes find it difficult to relate to what we feel out there and maybe there’s quite a lot of them have played but the guys who haven’t, it’s quite tough to sort of get that point across. Yeah, because he [Calum] can relate to playing at the same time, yeah, it’s constructive conversations.”

It’s a good thing because there was no chance of easing into the $3.5 million European Tour event with clumps of red numbers dotted all over the leaderboard. Horsey provided the highlight with five successive birdies from the turn and seven in total in a homeward nine negotiated in just 28 strokes.

Horsey came home in just 28 shots today.

His iron shots into 16 and 17 were sublime ?#SaudiIntlGolf pic.twitter.com/1fGHZtBj4c

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) February 4, 2021

He had to hole a wedge shot on the 18th for 59 but was slightly fortunate his pulled approach didn’t end up wet and eventually signed for a par and a 61 which matched Johnson’s second round en-route to victory in the inaugural Saudi International in 2019.

“I had a little conversation with myself going down 16. I wanted to make birdie there. Sort of added it up and realised [I] can’t really reach 18 in two. So yeah, I think realistically, two good birdie chances, managed to birdie 17 and made a bit of a hash at the last. Got a par there.”

A total of 71 players dipped under par including Jordan’s Shergo Al Kurdi, the 17-year-old MENA Tour amateur order of merit leader who shares 49th place with freshly minted OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic champion Paul Casey on one under.

Bernd Wiesberger will start the second round third on six-under, a shot ahead of a six players including the best of this week’s strong PGA Tour contingent, Bryson DeChambeau. World No.1 Dustin Johnson is handily placed at three-under alongside, among others, the English trio of Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Danny Willett.

??????? -9 Horsey
??????? -8 Gallacher
?? -6 Wiesberger
?? -5 DeChambeau
?? -5 Fox
??????? -5 Hill
?? -5 Pieters
?? -5 Haotong
?? -5 Kinhult

After 18 holes at the #SaudiIntlGolf.

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) February 4, 2021

Reigning U.S. Open champion DeChambeau used his significant length and putting to good use at the 7010-yard layout surrounded by the pristine coastline of the Red Sed.

“Definitely very pleased,” DeChambeau said afterwards.

“I was driving it a bit all over the place for the most part out there. Hit some good drives to 6 and 7. But was definitely struggling with the driver and a little bit of the irons, and I have to clean that up.

“I know I’m putting well. I know that I can hit it far out here. I’m disappointed it’s not as far as I would like it but once I got out there and was hitting some wayward shots I tried to try to rein it in and control it better.”

The post England’s David Horsey equals Royal Greens course record en-route to shock Saudi lead appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
On paper at least, the sixth and last event on the European Tour’s U.K. Swing, the U.K. Championship at The Belfry, looks to be the best of the bunch. Five of the world’s top-50 players are in attendance at the four-time Ryder Cup venue in the English Midlands—Bernd Wiesberger, Lee Westwood, Danny Willett, Matt Wallace and Victor Perez—easily the most since the Old World circuit made its return from the COVID-19 shutdown.

So things are looking up all round, with Willett epitomising the air of positivity after enduring 11 days of quarantine and three (negative) tests for coronavirus. Despite an 11-tournament run on the PGA Tour that featured six missed cuts, only one top-10 finish and saw him drop from 31st to 42nd on the World Rankings—a season he cheerfully describes as “higgledey-piggledy”—the former Masters champion was all smiles during his pre-tournament press conference.

“I just didn’t quite have my best stuff going,” he explained. “It’s one of those ones where if you don’t play good golf you’re going to miss-cuts. The guys [on the PGA Tour] are great golfers and you’ve got to be on your game. I wasn’t. I stuck in one really nice finish in the middle of it all [T-4 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic], but I’ve never really played more than two or three events in a row. With the restart, I was trying to play catch-up because I wasn’t sure how the exemptions are going to work next year. Really, I was just trying to play a few instead of just staying at home.”

Still, the 32-year-old has much to look forward to in what is his first visit to The Belfry since a far-off day spent watching practice for the 2002 Ryder Cup (“I wasn’t that big, so I didn’t see a lot”). Having made it through the requisite period of quarantine, Willett has wife, Nicole, on the bag for the first time this week.

“We’re in our own little bubble so it should be good fun,” said the current BMW PGA champion, a father of two. “My wife and I haven’t had more than two hours alone in seven months. So we are using this week to have a bit of time together on our own. She has never caddied for me, and she’s a bit nervous. She doesn’t want to get anything wrong. Luckily we’ve got a nice draw with Bernd and Laney [Wiesberger’s caddie, Jamie Lane], who is a good pal of ours. So hopefully he’ll be raking bunkers for me and making sure she’s looked after.”

Willett was less concerned about his lack of experience on a course that was once a regular feature of life on the European Tour. Between 1978 and 2008, The Belfry hosted nine English Opens, four Benson & Hedges International Opens, one Hennessey Cognac Cup match between Great Britain & Ireland and the Continent of Europe and three British Masters.

Already, in fact, Willett’s mind is drifting forward to November and the prospect of a spectator-free Masters he describes as “strange.”

“I’ve played Augusta with nobody there in December last year and again in early February,” he said. “I’m not sure if many guys will have done that. It will be a few degrees colder and a little windier and obviously a different course to what we see in April. It will be interesting to see if they can get it fast enough and firm enough, weather-permitting. Plus, maybe more than any other golf tournament in the world, no fans at the Masters will make a hell of a difference. But you’ve got a world-class golf course and you’ll have a world-class champion. Hopefully everything can go well.”

This week too. For both Mr. and Mrs. Willett.

The post Here’s how Danny Willett is turning his European Tour return into a getaway with his wife appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
When the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour make welcome returns next week after being on hold since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so too will the Official World Golf Ranking. Organizers behind the ranking announced on Wednesday that players competing in the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial and the Korn Ferry Challenge at TPC Sawgrass will earn points after all places had been frozen during the break.

At first glance that seems fair enough. But only for players on either of those tours. Not so much for those who compete elsewhere. The European Tour, for example, is not scheduled to return until the British Masters in late July. Which is why the decision to carry on as normal Stateside has not gone down too well with either the players on the Old World circuit or chief executive Keith Pelley.

“What an unfair decision!” tweeted Frenchman Mike Lorenzo-Vera. “Well done @OWGR Ltd!!! Thanks a lot!!!”

Austrian Bernd Wiesberger weighed in with, “Agreed! Either all Tours are playing for points or none!”

And, responding to a European Tour tweet announcing that the OWGR will “restart next week,” former Ryder Cup player Andrew Coltart was quick to elaborate. “For those wondering, that’s one month before play resumes in the U.K. on the European Tour,” said the Scot, who is now a commentator on Sky Sports.

RELATED: World Ranking to resume with PGA Tour restart, but not to everyone’s liking

In a memo to European Tour members, a copy of which has been obtained by Golf Digest, Pelley outlined his own unhappiness at the result of last week’s meeting of the Official World Golf Rankings Technical Committee and the OWGR Board. While Pelley agreed with the proposal to use the current frozen rankings as eligibility for the majors and the World Golf Championships later this year, the ability of PGA Tour players to accumulate points weeks before the vast majority of his members was a lot less acceptable.

“We agreed with the proposal that the ranking should restart alongside the resumption of the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour next week on the understanding that dispensation was made for the European Tour and the Challenge Tour—and indeed many other tours around the world—whose players will be disadvantaged by not being able to play at this time,” Pelley wrote in the memo. “Our proposal to correct this imbalance was either freezing the current average points of all European Tour members unable to play tournament golf until we restart our season or increasing the overall OWGR points available at our tournaments when we do restart.

“Without either of those adjustments, the consequences are negative for the majority of our membership, who will lose points through no fault of their own, when they are unable to play.”

Both proposals, however, were rejected, according to Pelley. And, as a result, he voted against the ranking restart proposal. According to his memo, his was the only dissenting voice.

Officials from the OWGR attempted to address the matter in a statement released on Wednesday, which noted that elements of the averaging formula used to calculate the ranking will help mitigate the issue of some players competing while others aren’t. And in a call to Golf Digest, Peter Dawson, chairman of the ranking board, elaborated on that initial reaction.

“Both the committee and the board took the view that if so many of the world’s top players are going to be playing in America in the coming weeks, we really had to restart the rankings,” said Dawson, who was the chief executive of the R&A from 1999 to 2015. “To not do so would risk, say, Jon Rahm not being World No. 1 when, if we had started the rankings, he would have reached that peak. Then we had to look at the reality that the tours are not all starting at the same time. What do we do then? Do we wait for the European Tour? And if we do, what about the others, like, say the Asian circuit or the one in Japan?”

Further bolstering that argument was analysis that showed, according to Dawson, that as long as the time between start dates was not too long, non-PGA Tour players would not be disadvantaged too much. Plus, the idea of using the “frozen” ranking as qualification for major events was also useful. What the officials didn’t want to happen was someone dropping out of the top 50 through no fault of their own and losing a spot in one of the majors.

“So the rankings had to be restarted,” Dawson said. “There was no other way without compromising the integrity of the rankings. Adjusting them by giving special weight to the European Tour or other tours in an arbitrary way wasn’t going to work. I liken this to coming out of lockdown. It’s harder to come out than it is to go in. It was almost impossible not to upset someone.

“Besides, if the players do their sums, things will not seem nearly as bad as they first thought,” Dawson added. “But I do feel for them. They have difficult decisions to make. As did we. But I feel we have done the right thing in difficult circumstances.”

RELATED: European Tour to resume 2020 season in July with six-event U.K. swing

Still, there are further implications for the European Tour, not least in the realm of Ryder Cup qualifying. The OWGR decision means that only the small minority of European-born players who are PGA Tour members competing in the U.S. when that tour resumes will be able to earn points on the Ryder Cup World Points List. Not until the 2020 European Tour season starts again in July will that playing field be levelled.

So, some adjustment was required. In coordination with the European Tour’s tournament committee and Ryder Cup captain, Padraig Harrington, Pelley told players in his memo that he has approved the “freezing” of the World Points List until the week of the “first European Tour event back.”

Padraig Harrington has agreed to keep frozen the Ryder Cup World Rankings points list until both the PGA Tour and European Tour resume play. (Ramsey Cardy)

“Any points gained from PGA Tour or Korn Ferry Tour events this month and next—up until the restart of our season—will not officially count on the Ryder Cup World Points List,” Pelley said. “Having spoken with Padraig, he wants to reassure all members that, while the Ryder Cup World Points List is frozen, he will be monitoring the form of all possible Ryder Cup team members as part of his general review of player performances.”

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