Sergio Garcia Could Expose a Flawed World Golf Ranking System

If Sergio Garcia were to win the WGC-CA Championship this week, he could move past Tiger Woods in the World Golf rankings and become the first player to do so since Vijay Singh briefly overtook Woods back in late 2004.

The fact that Garcia could very well become the No. 1 ranked golfer in the world with a win this week clearly demonstrates a problem with the World Golf ranking system.

Although Garcia did have a very strong year in 2008, with wins at The Players Championship, two wins on the European Tour, and a second place finish at The Tour Championship, it doesn’t seem like quite enough to overtake Tiger Woods, or Padraig Harrington for that matter, atop the World Golf Rankings.

Garcia has been very consistent lately; there is no doubt about that.

In fact, he won the Vardon Trophy for the lowest scoring average on the PGA Tour in 2008.

However, true golfing greatness is defined by the way a player performs in the big-time events, particularly the major championships.

Garcia did win the Players Championship in 2008, which is widely regarded as the fifth major. 

But, Garcia’s win at the Players Championship was more or less the only big-time win of his career. 

Garcia has finished within the top-10 in just two out of the last majors he’s played in; the 2007 British Open and the 2008 PGA Championship.

In the past eight majors he has played in, Garcia has missed the cut three times and was disqualified from the 2007 PGA Championship for signing an incorrect scorecard.

Does two top-10 finishes in the last eight majors sound like a performance worthy of the No. 1 spot in the World Golf rankings?

The fact of the matter is that whatever complicated point system being used for the World Golf rankings clearly does not place enough weight on the major championships.

Padraig Harrington won the year’s final two majors in 2008, but was overtaken by Garcia in the World Golf rankings just a few months later when Garcia won twice on the European Tour.

This more or less indicates that consistent play plus a couple of wins on the European Tour was enough to overtake Harrington in the rankings despite the two consecutive majors he had just won a couple of months earlier.

If Garcia were to win this week and move in to the top spot in the World Golf rankings, he would move past both Harrington and Woods who have combined to win five of the last eight majors. 

When evaluating the greatness of a player’s career, we can often put too much emphasis on their performance in four events; the majors. 

So, it is good to see the World Golf Ranking system also acknowledges consistently great play in their formula for ranking players.

However, although sometimes we can put too much emphasis on just the majors, the World Golf ranking system appears to not put nearly enough emphasis on the majors.

The fact that Sergio Garcia is in a position to overtake Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington as the world’s No. 1 player despite Woods and Harrington having combined to win 63 percent of the majors over the past two years, demonstrates a flawed criteria for ranking the world’s top golfers.

With a win this week, Sergio Garcia could expose a flawed World Golf ranking system and have a lot of knowledgeable golf fans and analysts scratching their heads.