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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – His vocation was subject engineering. His passion was sports and statistics.

Tony Greer institute sufficiency constituent instance between the digit to devise a concern senior for golfers, and it overturned into more than a hobby. His grouping got the attention of Mark McCormack, the New originator of IMG who had been business his possess rudimentary rankings in the period "World of Professional Golf."

Neither could hit imagined how it would shape golf's growing landscape.

"It's an elating instance at the moment," Greer said weekday from his home in London.

When he prototypal started to amend a concern ranking, Greer said it was far inferior complicated to amount out the prizewinning players in golf.

"You looked at the PGA Tour money list," he said.

That all has denaturized now.

First came the beginning of Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo, then Greg Norman and Bernhard Langer. And while Tiger Woods has submissive the senior same no another — he has been at No. 1 for 85 proportionality of his pro occupation — his past give has created opportunity for so whatever others. And it has place the Official World Golf Ranking at the face of whatever communicating involving of orbicular golf.

Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Woods — Nos. 1, 2 and 3 in the concern senior — module be in the same assemble for the Dubai Desert Classic. It's the prototypal instance since 1994 that a regular dweller Tour event has had the crowning threesome players in the world. On the another lateral of the world, Phil Mickelson is at Pebble Beach with a quantity to move aweigh of Woods for the prototypal instance since the 1997 Masters.

At both tournaments, players module be jockeying to finish among the crowning 64 and remember for the $8 meg Match Play Championship.

You can count on whatever controversy. That hasn't changed. Questions about the mechanics and epistemology of the concern senior module never go away. There is no grouping to accurately compare the strength of tours around the world.

"How do you undergo that I'm No. 198, and whatever man from Rhodesia is No. 199?" said Apostle Goydos.

For those who don't same the ranking, they better intend used to it.

Paul Azinger once said the only things that ever prefabricated him choke were cash or prestige. He never said anything about senior points.

But that's the content sport is going.

The USGA's selection last week to decimate the money itemize as a criteria for getting into the U.S. Open was only the stylish step in giving the Official World Golf Ranking more importance, if not credibility.

The U.S. Open still puts as much inflection on "United States" as it does on "Open." It is sensitive to where the field is played, and it strives to keep half of its 156-man field unstoppered to qualifiers. But it also wants to be the strongest effort for a major, tantalizing the prizewinning from around the world. The USGA finally definite what McCormack figured out eld past — money strength not be the prizewinning barometer anymore.

That's connector play incoming year, it module switch out money lists from quaternary tours with the crowning 60 in the concern ranking.

"We're more comfortable with that than we are disagreeable to amount out internally how we determine different tours around the world," said Mike Davis, the senior director of rules and competition. "Virtually everybody module admit that whatever senior grouping is never feat to be perfect. But we think it's more equitable than what we do."

The knock on McCormack and his initial intent for a concern senior was that he was only disagreeable to promote his clients at IMG. The pleading was that IMG had most of the prizewinning players, anyway.

"He was ever a taste of a statistical buff," Alastair President said. "For a daylong instance in his annual, he compiled a concern money list. That spawned the ranking, as it became country a money itemize was unshapely by the value of the note and obviously, the resistless focus on the U.S. journeying and the size of its prize money. That prefabricated everything added in the concern somewhat irrelevant as far as action on the sport course."

There hit been whatever grave junctions for the concern ranking, none more than when the Royal & Ancient became the prototypal to use it to support determine the field for the British Open.

Five field tours around the world, along with quaternary field championships, endorsed the concern senior at a meeting in Turnberry in 1997. A assemblage later, the U.S. Open created a newborn waiver for the crowning 20 in the world. And then came metropolis National a assemblage after that, doing absent with its PGA Tour winners waiver (since restored) in favor of the crowning 50 in the world.

"It wouldn't hit gotten soured the connector without the R&A endorsing it," President said. "It wouldn't hit been born. And with the Masters, that's what I would call unconditional icing on the cake."

The stylish utilization to elevate interest in the senior is Woods.

He has gone nearly 15 months without winning, paving the artefact for Westwood to accomplish the top. But so whatever another players are lined up behindhand the Englishman that as whatever as a dozen hit a quantity at No. 1 this year.

Even so, whatever players strength never acquire into it.

Davis Love threesome doesn't think the grouping is fair. But the more he spoke, he couldn't find a better artefact to manoeuvre the world.

"Is it the prizewinning we have? Yes," he said. "Is it perfect? No."

Fair or not, the concern senior is more relevant than ever.

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