Azinger: OWGR is "So Subjective"
This is a very interesting perspective and accurate in that IMG did, in fact, create the OWGR in 1986. The initiative and "model" of what would become the OWGR was contrived by the Championship Committee of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, which found in the 1980s that its system of issuing invitations to The Open Championship on a tour by tour basis was omitting an increasing number of top players. Fast-forward six years later and the first OWGR was published just prior to the Masters, with Greg Norman on the top of that list. Azinger would also find himself highly-ranked in the early 1990s. Regardless, there wasn't (and isn't) something "right" about how the rankings were being calculated.
"I think it was a flawed system when I was in my prime [in the early 90's]," Azinger continued. "I mean, I was ninth in the world starting in 1993, had a ten-month stretch with eleven top-3's, 4 wins including a major and I went to fifth. Now, Luke Donald was 230th in the world, he's won four times in five years and now he's ranked #1. Of course, I wasn't with IMG, either.
I'm cynical about the world ranking, personally. Now it is probably more accurate than it was, but it's hard for me to really talk about it. I mean, to me right now the best player in the world is ranked 15th, and that's Tiger Woods. That's the way I look at it."
Tiger Woods and long-time agent Mark Steinberg recently left IMG after Steinberg and IMG parted ways as part of a May 24 shakeup when the two sides couldn't agree on a contract renewal.
According to reports, Steinberg was nudged out with a new contract for a reduced fee.