How a number is made
The method, in plain English
The rank is a score from 0 to 1,000. It starts at 500. The finish and the shots you beat the field by add to it, and only in proportion to how strong that field was. The scoring average then leans the season 25 points per stroke away from 70.
1. Take the strokes
Scores are pulled from public leaderboards. Nobody types them in. A counting start needs a published stroke total. Match play with no score stays off the average. A missed cut counts, for the rounds that were played. This file was compiled on 2026-10-19.
2. Build the score
Each week has two parts, and both shrink when the field is weaker. The finish: a win is full credit, a top 10 is a share, a missed cut is almost nothing. The score: shots better than the rest of that leaderboard, up to six. Shooting worse than the field adds nothing, so a missed cut at a major is a quiet week rather than a fine. Those weeks are averaged. Fewer than eight tournaments is scored as eight, and the missing ones add nothing, so one hot month cannot be a world ranking. Then the season scoring average leans the number. Every stroke under 70 is 25 points. Every stroke over 70 costs 25. Eight rounds are still required before a name joins the board.
Scored
Tournament scoring average. Strokes per round, shown as itself.
Score
0–1000 from the finish, the shots versus the field, and the season average. Higher is better.
Worked example
Preston Stout
19 stroke-play events and 58 rounds in the past 12 months. He scored 69.14. Scratch score 845. At NCAA DI Men's National Championship- Stroke Play he shot 68.50.
3. Keep twelve months, then drop it
A score counts in full until the Monday it turns 52 weeks old. Then it leaves the average by itself. The weekly edition does not wait on a person. New tournaments show up the next time the public leaderboards are pulled.
What we refuse to invent
Course ratings are not published for most of these weeks, so the rank does not pretend to be a handicap. It uses the score you shot, where you finished, and how strong that field was. It is not another ranking’s points. We do not guess a slope.