AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Bernhard Langer was reminded of his place in history this week, unrelated to the 68-year-old German looking stately as ever in his Masters green jacket as a two-time champion.
It was 40 years ago — April 6, 1986, to be exact — the “Sony Ranking” was introduced.
What began as a list in 1968 for IMG founder Mark McCormack's “World of Professional Golf” annual got the attention of the R&A as it was reviewing criteria for the British
Open. It was officially introduced at the 1986 Masters.
The headline that week proclaimed, “Europeans Top Golf Rankings.”
Langer was No. 1 in world, followed by Seve Ballesteros and Sandy Lyle. The leading American was Tom Watson at No. 4. Jack Nicklaus, considered to be past his prime at age 46, checked in at No. 33. By the end of the week, Nicklaus famously won his sixth Masters and 18th professional major.
“It was time to have something like that because international golfers were excluded from tournaments like the Masters, the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship,” Langer said under the big oak tree next to the Augusta National clubhouse.
"Only two or three of us got in," he said. “In Europe, I had to win the money list to get in the Masters. And we had more than one good golfer.”
It wasn't perfect then, and probably isn't now. It's nigh impossible to measure the runner-up of this week's Token Homemate Cup on the Japan Golf Tour against whoever finishes 15th at Augusta.
But it was a start, and its influence is greater now than anyone might have imagined.
Every major championship uses the Official World Golf Ranking an an integral part of its criteria. The Masters and British Open take the top 50, the U.S. Open takes the top 60. The PGA Championship uses invitations in a bid to have everyone from the top 100.
The Sony Rankings — yes, it had a corporate sponsor — became the Official World Golf Ranking when the major tours and the four majors formed a board in 1997. Now the OWGR has 25 tours around the world, the most recent addition being Saudi-funded LIV Golf.
Whether LIV Golf should get more points awarded to more than the top 10 players is a debate as endless as deciding whether the PGA Tour gets too much weight.
But there is no doubt that OWGR has been critical to opening the borders beyond American golf.
The U.S. Open had only three foreign-born champions from 1926 through 1993 — Gary Player of South Africa, Tony Jacklin of England and David Graham of Australia. Starting with Ernie Els of South Africa in 1994, 13 of the last 32 champions were international players.
Padraig Harrington in 2008 became the first European in 78 years to win the PGA Championship when he won at Oakland Hills in 2008.
It wasn't a matter of getting better. It was a matter of getting an opportunity. That much should have been made clear during the 1980s when Europe began its dominance in the Ryder Cup.
More than his own three-week reign atop the world ranking, Langer said it created more paths. Ballesteros, Langer and Lyle combined for six majors in the seven years before the ranking began in somewhat an official capacity.
“That helped open it up, especially in the majors, to some international golfers who Americans never heard of or didn't know much about,” he said. “It's different now with the media. But it was an important step in the right direction. Was it perfect? Maybe not. But it was a good way to get the best field.”
That was mainly for the majors. More hurdles came from the PGA Tour, which always had the best collection of players. The requirement under former Commissioner Deane Beman was a minimum of 15 events for membership.
Europe required 11 events. Top players with a global eye often played the occasional event in Japan and Australia, and the travel and time took a toll.
“We didn't go on boats,” Langer said with a smile, “but we didn't go on private jets.”
Langer recalled that 11 top Europeans asked Beman to reduce the PGA Tour requirement to 12 events and “he wouldn't budge.”
So much has changed.
The man behind the math for years was London-based Tony Greer, and his original plan was to prioritize tournaments into four sections. The four majors received the most weight, followed by most PGA Tour and top European Tour events, on down to lesser events around the world.
There have been changes over the years, most notably going from a three-year rolling period to a two-year system in 1995, and recently expanding the strength-of-field to include everyone playing, not just the top 200 players.
The 40th year of world ranking has Scottie Scheffler on top — he has been No. 1 a total of 185 weeks, trailing only Tiger Woods (683 weeks) and Greg Norman (331). There are five Americans and five Europeans in the top 10. All are on the PGA Tour.
Perhaps the best measure is the Masters, which has a 91-man field from 23 countries. The week the world ranking began, the 88-man field came from 11 countries.
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