A number of European Tour players have expressed their anger at a decision to resume the world rankings from next week.
The Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) announced on Wednesday the rankings would restart when the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour restart in the week ending 14 June.
The rankings have been frozen since mid-March due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The problem for European Tour players, however, is that they are not due to get underway until the British Masters on 22 July, meaning the PGA Tour pros on the other side of the Atlantic will be earning rankings points while they are unable to accumulate any.
That could end up costing players dearly when it comes to the majors and World Golf Championships, which make use of the world rankings to determine eligibility.
It’s not just European Tour players being left out in the cold either. South Africa’s Sunshine Tour has yet to set a return date, while the PGA Tour of Australia’s next event isn’t until 20 August and the Asian Tour’s next tournament is in September.
Several European Tour regulars took to social media to voice their anger at the decision, including English duo Matt Fitzpatrick and Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston.
Even though Fitzpatrick is scheduled to tee it up at Colonial next week, he described the decision as “unfair”, while Johnston called the move “dumb” and “stupid”.
South African golfer Brandon Stone, meanwhile, said he found the decision “very disrespectful to all other tours around the world”.
Other European Tour pros to speak out against the move included Bernd Wiesberger, Richie Ramsay and Mike Lorenzo-Vera.
– TEAMtalk media
