| With an amazing last round of eight-under 64, studded with two eagles, at the prestigious Johnnie Walker Classic, Randhawa catapulted from the previous India-best of 133 to 98 in the world rankings. |
| Now why should anyone celebrate when your national cricket team is already ranked inside top 10 "" never mind, if there are only nine Test-playing nations? We need to simply because golf is a truly global sport. |
| To give an idea of what Randhawa's breaking into top 10 actually signifies, it needs to be said that he's now the third highest ranked non-Japanese Asian golfer after Vijay Singh of Fiji (No. 2) and KJ Choi of Korea (No. 25). There are only three Japanese players "" Shigeyuki Maruyama (No. 41), Toshimitsu Izawa (No. 57) and Shingo Katayama (No. 67) "" ranked ahead of Randhawa. Randhawa is No. 6 among Asian golfers. |
| Japanese players are generally ranked separately from Asian PGA, because the Japanese PGA has stronger players than the fledgling Asian Tour. The World Golf Rankings (WGR) are rather complex but they give a precise measurement of a golfer's prowess. |
| While an Arjun Atwal may have been the Asian PGA No. 1 in 2003 "" a spot Randhawa held in 2002 "" and also became the first Indian to qualify for the US PGA Tour. The WGR indicate how a certain player compares to other top stars. |
| As Atwal plays regularly on the US PGA Tour and collects good finishes, his ranking will shoot up. It will not be a surprise, if Atwal, currently No. 225, comes inside 100 with a decent showing in the US. |
| The WGR are endorsed by the world's six Major Tours that make up the International Federation of PGA Tours "" US PGA Tour, PGA European Tour, Southern African PGA Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia, and PGA Tour of Japan and the Asian PGA Tour. |
| Points are awarded according to the players' finishing positions, and the tournaments themselves are "rated" according to the strength of field based on the number of and ranking of the players in respective tournament fields. |
| The four major championships "" Masters, US Open, British Open, PGA "" and the Players Championship are rated separately to reflect the higher quality of the events. In addition, the Volvo PGA Championship in Europe and the Australian, Japan, and South African Open Championships are allocated higher minimum point levels. |
| The WGR points for each player are accumulated over a two-year "rolling" period. The points accumulated in the latest 52-week period are doubled. |
| Each player is then ranked according to his average points per tournament, which is determined by dividing his total number of points by the number of tournaments he has played in the two-year period. There is a minimum requirement of 20 tournaments for each 52-week period. |
| The winners of the Masters, US Open, British Open, and PGA Championship are awarded 50 points (doubled to 100 in the current year) with 30 points going to second place, 20 for third, 15 for fourth, down to a single point for a player completing the final round. US PGA Tour events have the highest point at stake because of the strength of the field. |
| Of late, many tournaments in Asia have begun carrying more points because they are joint-sanctioned with the European Tour. The Johnnie Walker Classic "" where Randhawa was second "" is actually tri-sanctioned, with the Australasian being the third Tour attached with the event. Since players like Ernie Els, third behind Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh in the world, were among the field, it was worth more points. |
| The Johnnie Walker had a stake of 38 points for the winner and Randhawa "" tied second with Thomas Bjorn "" got 19 points, the highest ever he has for any single event in his career. |
| No wonder, that carried him to a career-high position of No. 98. His next logical goal is to get into top 50, for that would entitle him to play all four Major and the special World Golf Series events, which carry lots of points. |
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