St Andrews, Scotland 23 January 2007 – The World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) from The R&A is now available live online at www.randa.org/wagr Created as the universal standard for entry into The Amateur Championship, the ranking is a weekly performance table of the world’s top 1200 players in men’s amateur golf.
National handicapping systems will no longer be used as the primary condition to identify the international starting field of 288 players in The Amateur, to be played this year at Royal Lytham & St Annes and St Annes Old Links Golf Clubs between 18 & 23 June.
The Amateur field in 2007 will feature an established number of exempt players and approximately the top 250 that enter, from those ranked 1- 800, on The R&A World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Commenting on the launch of the WAGR website, R&A Director Mike Tate said:
"WAGR clearly identifies the top amateur players in the world based on current form and presents them with the opportunity to play in The Amateur Championship. Other organisers have indicated that they may wish to adopt the WAGR standard for their own tournaments and we are happy to maintain the ranking year round as a service to the game"
This week’s No 1 WAGR player is Scotland’s Richie Ramsay, the current US Amateur Champion, with players representing seven different counties in the top ten, including England’s Jamie Moul ranked 2, Spain’s Pablo Martin ranked 4, Kyung Tae Kim of South Korea ranked 5 and America’s Chris Kirk, number 7 in the world.
The WAGR is produced by R&A Championships Limited as the global eligibility standard for entry into The Amateur Championship and as a service to amateur golf worldwide. The ranking is a weekly table of playing performance for the worlds top 1200 amateur players in 450 ranking events.
The WAGR table features the top 800 players eligible for entry into The Amateur Championship and currently includes players from 46 different countries.
The R&A is golf’s world rules and development body and organiser of The Open Championship. It operates with the consent of more than 125 national and international, amateur and professional organisations, from over 110 countries and on behalf of an estimated 28 million golfers in Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific and The Americas (outside the USA and Mexico). The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the game’s governing body in the United States and Mexico.
Contact:
Mike Tate, Director
David Moir, Manager – Championship Entries
The R&A
Tel: (44) 1334 460000
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