Although the 15-time major champion is not one of the 20 players teeing it up, the list of who ‘will’ play is enough to have any tournament promoter salivating. 

World Number One Scottie Scheffler heads a field dominated by a slew of major champions, including recent U.S. Ryder Cup representatives and their captain Keegan Bradley. The victorious European team will not go underrepresented however, with Justin Rose, Bob MacIntyre and Sepp Straka sure to bring the chirp to their fellow contestants about Europe’s latest victory, albeit in far more friendly and tranquil surrounds than those witnessed at Bethpage Black.

That the tournament continues to be scheduled in direct opposition to the Australian Open at Royal Melbourne is an obvious blow to Golf Australia and the tournament’s corporate supporters. Rubbing salt into the wounds is that the DP World Tour – which is also a co-sanctioning partner of the Australian Open – has the US$6 million Nedbank Challenge also scheduled in the same 4-7 December slot on the calendar.

The Australian Open has had a prizemoney bump up to AU$2 million this year but from scheduling, dollar and geographic standpoints, for those not tempted simply by it’s staging on the revered Melbourne Sandbelt, it’s for a long time been far too easy to opt in to more lucrative events closer to home or to put the feet up after a long season. 

All the above issues are not breaking news to the Australian golf public, and anyone associated with the game for decades. The timing of our major events, the impacts PGA TOUR wraparound schedules have had on our summer of golf, our small market prizemoney, exchange and taxation rates, are our real-life challenges.

That Golf Australia have been able to secure Rory McIlroy’s return this year after an 11-year absence is to be applauded, complementing a cast of Australia’s best players and the recent additions of 2023 champion Joaquin Niemann, Carlos Ortiz and the exciting Spaniard Jose Luis Ballester. 

Although they may not openly admit to it, it clearly won’t be lost on the latter three names in particular – all of whom are currently signed to LIV Golf - that OWGR points and the prospect of direct entry into both The Open Championship and The Masters in 2026 are opportunities for the taking.

Niemann’s high finish at the Australian PGA followed by his win at the Australian Open in 2023 earned him valuable OWGR points that continue to be unavailable to him via participation in the current LIV Golf schedule alone. Those performances had a direct impact on him earning starts in the 2024 Open and Masters Tournament, a pathway that others would/should also find attractive.

Joaquin Nieman claimed the Stonehaven Cup at The Australian in 2023. PHOTO: Getty Images.

Imagine for a minute if that pathway became significantly more attractive if the OWGR points on offer at the Australian Open were substantially boosted?

The R&A and Augusta National announced that they would provide direct entry into The Open and Masters from 2026 onwards for winners of significant and historic national championships – including the Australian, Scottish, Japanese, Spanish and South African Opens. However, history suggests that those dangling carrots and any opportunity to avail yourself of any off-course attractions at each of these tournaments will not be enough to lure additional marquee names to these corners of the globe.

Prizemoney boosts won’t do it either, not with US$20 million events on LIV or elevated events on the PGA TOUR already being passed up by the cashed-up elite. Scheduling is hard and players still need time off to deal with life, just like the rest of us.

The OWGR Rankings are formed from ‘eligible events’ that primarily comprise those with a built-in meritocracy, a pathway for all to access based on performance e.g. Qualifying schools, Monday qualifying etc. Eligible tournaments are then assigned a field rating determined by the sum of performance points for all players entered in that week.

There are some exceptions to the normal 72-hole tournaments that form the bulk of those on the eligible event list, the Hero World Challenge being one of them. The OWGR Board in their wisdom, endorsed the inclusion of the tournament under their Limited Field category a few years ago, meaning all 30 invited players would also accrue OWGR points for the 54-hole event.

The merits of that decision are not the point in question here, however. From the Australian Open’s perspective, the clash of dates, higher prize money AND the distribution of OWGR points at a rate higher than that allocated to their own field are compounding factors that impact on the tournament. 

To illustrate the point, the 2024 Hero World Challenge had a Field Rating of 117.67, based on the performance points of the 30 players in the field. The winner, Scheffler, earned 30.54 world ranking points for his three days of work.

By comparison, the full field Australian Open’s field rating was just 78.85, with the victor Ryggs Johnston earning 13.56 points across 72 holes in an event co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour.

Invites to the majors are on the cards at the Australian Open, but why is the field rating so low? PHOTO: Getty Images.

That field rating is likely to go up in 2025 courtesy of world No.2 McIlroy’s inclusion, but there are already seven of the Top 10 players in the world confirmed for Tiger’s event with three spots still to be announced.

From the current Top 10, only Tommy Fleetwood and Russell Henley are not currently confirmed to be playing in The Bahamas or Melbourne. (If they do decide to play somewhere, does anyone want to wager where that might be?)   

Taking the leaf out of the R&A and Augusta National’s book, if the OWGR board shared a similar interest in acknowledging historic championships and supporting pathways towards a more global professional game, it might take the lead in revising the system to identify several national Opens for higher ranking points pools - commensurate with their standing in history and not simply the depth of the field that week. 

We all know that if the weather plays ball, the Australian Open with McIlroy et al in the field, competing on the great Composite Course at Royal Melbourne, will be an epic watch for spectators on the ground and viewers tuning in from across the globe.

We’ve seen social media posts flood in from across the world at past Royal Melbourne and other Sandbelt-hosted events in recent times, people setting alarm clocks to get up simply to swoon over the architecture and a style of golf that is fairly unique to these parts. 

With sold out crowds a virtual lock, the Australian Open will look and feel like a tournament that has prizemoney and additional spoils of victory and high performance – like ranking points – at higher levels than will actually be the case.  

Hopefully this ranking point ‘anomaly’ is something the OWGR board could take some decisive action on of their own volition, not wait for affiliated Tours and national bodies to make a recommendation of this kind to them for consideration.

Any decision to do so would likely not only be applauded in these corners of the globe but also indicate that the OWGR have read the room, at a time when the legitimacy of the rankings has never been more in question.