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Jon Rahm: Golf’s World Ranking system is laughable

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Anyone clicking on to “This Week’s Events” on the OWGR webpage this week may be in for surprise.

In order of points awarded, the RSM Classic, a typical end of season event on the PGA Tour, rewards the winner at Sea Island almost twice the ranking points of the victor at the DP World Championship. This despite Dubai hosting world number one, Rory McIlroy, former number one and current number five Jon Rahm, ninth placed Matt Fitzpatrick, and five further players from the world’s top-30.

In contrast, after world number 12 Tony Finau pulled out of the event in Georgia, top of the shop is Seamus Power, ranked 30, in-form but with nothing like the pedigree of the three previously named, nor Shane Lowry or Viktor Hovland.

The 50-strong field teeing it up at the Earth Course have earned their places via a season-long ranking table, and Rahm doesn’t find the points system amusing at all.

OWGR now ranks events on overall strength of field, and with a full field against a limited one, the RSM Classic has a rating of over 100 points higher than the championship event, therefore points are distributed as such.

Rahm was not afraid of letting his feelings be known ahead of this week’s event:

“I’m going to be as blunt as I can. I think the OWGR right now is laughable”

“I understand what they are trying to do with the depth of field, but having the best players in the world automatically makes the tournament better,” Rahm added.

“I don’t care what their system says. I think they have made a mistake. I think some aspects of it might be beneficial, but I think they have devalued the value of the better players.

“The 30 best players of the year should not be punished because it’s a smaller field.”

“Depth of field doesn’t mean a better tournament.I could go on and on. I think they have missed the mark on that stance quite a bit.”

The official ranking system has already been called into question on many occasions this year, with many questioning their validity after all LIV events were declared as not qualifying for any ranking points.

This has meant a drop in rankings for the likes of Dustin Johnson and 2022 Open Championship winner Cam Smith, something LIV is very keen to turn round in the future.

Keith Pelley, DP World Tour chief, is already under intense pressure to talk to the LIV ruling committee, and the rebellious talk from one of his own supportive players can’t help matters.

“There is no doubt that Jon Rahm’s conversation and some of the other noticeable changes around OWGR will be a topic at our next board meeting,” he said. “It is prudent to bring it up based on our top players and their comments.”

“The OWGR is a hot topic for many reasons. There were four universities that did a detailed study and all came to the conclusion that the world rankings didn’t necessarily reflect the game of golf. As a result we implemented a new system. And like with any new system you evaluate it and modify it if changes are needed.”

Rahm is adamant that beating better players is the route to increased points:

“Would you rather win a tournament when you have the number one player in the world there or the 30th or 6th there?” asked the 2021 US Open winner.

“I think it’s more valuable if you’re beating best players in the world. I think a lot of people would agree and I think it should reflect that.”

That puts Rahm at odds with another anti-LIV player and Ryder Cup colleague, Rory McIlroy, who gave his support to the new way of points distribution.

“You’ve got a 50-man field here versus a 144-man field there,” said the FedEX Cup winner.

“So just in terms of how the strengths of field is calculated, they have 90 more players to contribute to their strength of field. So the reason that this has got 21 points, and the RSM has got 39 is the person that wins the RSM has to beat 139 other guys.”

“You only have to beat 49 other guys here. It’s a much fairer system.”

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‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

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An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

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How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

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Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course.  Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

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Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

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Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.

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