World Amateur Golf Ranking Explained

The World Amateur Golf Ranking for men was introduced by The R&A, the governing body of the sport of golf outside the United States and Mexico, on 23 January 2007. It is based on the results of over 2,600 amateur tournaments per year (and amateurs participating in certain professional events) and is updated each Wednesday. Rankings are based on the players' average performances in counting events over a rolling period. This period was 52 weeks initially but was gradually expanded during 2016 to 104 weeks,^[1] similar to those of the Official World Golf Ranking.

Like the Official World Golf Ranking for male professional golfers, the amateur ranking was initiated by The R&A to provide a more reliable means of selecting an appropriate field for one of its tournaments. The professional ranking was initially used to help set the field for The Open Championship and the amateur ranking plays a role in selecting the field for The Amateur Championship, which was previously selected mainly on the basis of national handicap systems. Other tournament organisers will be able to use the rankings to select players if they so wish.

The first set of rankings featured over 1,000 players from 46 countries and was headed by the 2006 U.S. Amateur champion, Richie Ramsay of Scotland.

In February 2011, the United States Golf Association (USGA) endorsed the rankings and announced it would use them for an exemption category in all their men's amateur championships, including the U.S. Amateur, beginning in 2011.^[2]

The women's rankings were started in February 2011.^[3] Japan's Mitsuki Katahira was the first number one.^[4] American Rose Zhang holds the record for most weeks at the top of the rankings with 142 weeks.

Only three male and two female golfers have ever held the No. 1-ranking as both an amateur and a professional. The first to do so was Rory McIlroy, who was when he became the No. 1 amateur and when he first became the world No. 1 professional. Jordan Spieth was the second to accomplish this feat, he was when he topped the amateur rankings and when he reached No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking. Jon Rahm, who was ranked no. 1 for 60 weeks, became professional world no. 1 in July 2020. Lydia Ko was the first player to accomplish this feat in the female ranking. She was only and held the ranking for a record 130 consecutive weeks, and she was a mere when she first reached the pinnacle of the Women's World Golf Rankings (WWGR). Atthaya Thitikul held the amateur No. 1 for 12 weeks in 2019–2020 and topped the WWGR on 31 October 2022.

Chronology of men's world number ones

	Player	Country	First week	Last week	data-sort-type=number	Weeks !	data-sort-type=number	Total weeks
					2	2
					1	1
					17	–
					1	–
	(2)				1	18
	(2)				7	8
					3	–
					5	5
	(2)				22	–
					12	12
	(3)				5	–
					1	1
	(4)				6	36
					34	34
					5	5
					2	2
					20	20
					8	8
					18	18
					7	–
					2	–
	(2)				3	–
	(2)				3	5
	(3)				19	–
					2	2
	(4)				10	–
					1	–
	(5)				10	49
	(2)				54	55
					5	5
					1	–
					1	1
	(2)				45	46
					1	1
					8	8
					9	–
					6	6
	(2)				12	21
					16	16
					41	41
					25	–
					5	–
	(2)				35	60
	(2)				37	–
					1	–
	(3)				1	–
	(2)				3	4
	(4)				4	47
					48	48
					2	–
					3	3
					5	5
	(2)				16	18
					26	26
					10	10
					9	–
					1	–
	(2)				3	12
	(2)				54	55
					5	5
					1	–
					1	1
					13	–
	(2)				7	8
					1	1
	(2)				74	87^
					1	–
					5	5
	(2)				15	–
					2	–
	(3)				3	–
	(2)				2	–
	(4)				10	29
	(3)				14	–
					2	–
	(4)				1	–
	(2)				2	–
	(5)				2	–
	(3)				4	–
	(6)				7	–
					2	2
	(4)				1	–
	(7)				2	–
	(5)				7	–
	(8)				1	–
	(6)				6	22
	(9)				10	41
					1	1

Key

Chronology of women's world number ones

	Player	Country	First week	Last week	data-sort-type=number	Weeks !	data-sort-type=number	Total weeks
					3	–
					1	1
	(2)				6	9
					130	130
					1	–
					4	–
	(2)				1	2
	(2)				12	16
					28	28
						15
					15	15
					5	–
					52	–
					12	12
	(2)				83	135
					18	–
					3	–
	(2)				1	–
	(2)				12	–
	(3)				12	31
	(3)				19	34
	(2)				1	–
					1	–
	(3)				1	–
					1	–
	(2)				6	7
	(4)				10	17
	(2)				11	12
					34	34
					2	2
					142	142^
					53	53
					5	–
					2	2
	(2)				3	8

Key

Elite events

Prior to 2020, events were ranked in eight categories: Elite, A, B, C, D, E, F or G. The Elite events are listed below. The calculation of the ranking changed in 2020 and there are no longer any categories.^[5]

Men

• The Amateur Championship
• European Amateur
• U.S. Amateur
• Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship
• Eisenhower Trophy
• NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships (beginning in 2016)^[1]

Women

• The Women's Amateur Championship
• European Ladies Amateur Championship
• U.S. Women's Amateur
• NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championships
• Women's Amateur Asia-Pacific (beginning in 2018)
• Espirito Santo Trophy

Notes and References

1. Web site: Notice Regarding 2016 Amendments . WAGR . 8 February 2016.
2. Web site: The R&A, USGA Commence World Amateur Golf Ranking Partnership . USGA . 5 February 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110304082710/http://www.usga.org/news/2011/February/R-A,-USGA-Commence-WAGR-Partnership/ . 4 March 2011.
3. News: The R&A to launch Women's World Amateur Golf Ranking . . 31 January 2011 . 6 July 2012.
4. News: Harvey breaks Law, while Boineau wins at home . . 16 February 2011 . 6 July 2012.
5. Web site: Power Method FAQs – Will there still be Elite events? . WAGR . 29 January 2020.