According;to;two;Ivy;League;professors,;the;most;im-portant;classification;system;in;golf—the;criteria;for;the
touring;pro’s;back-stage;pass;to;global;competition—might
be;a;fundamentally;biased;system.;Based;on;the;research
of;Mark;Broadie;of;Columbia;Business;School;and;Richard
J.;Rendleman;of;the;Tuck;School;of;Business;at;Dartmouth
(and;North;Carolina’s;Kenan-Flagler;Business;School),;both
with expertise;in statistics;and;financial;derivatives, the
World;Ranking;is;not;based;on;standard;statistical;models.
Broadie;and;Rendleman;say;that;the;current;system
employed;to;rank;the;world’s;golfers;rests;on;a;foundation
of;unexplained,;built-in;biases;that;award;ranking;points
in;a;random;and;sometimes;circular;fashion.;One;startling
result,;according;to;their;research:;Among;the;top;200
players;listed;in;the;OWGR,;the;average;PGA;Tour;player
is;ranked;36;positions;worse;than;he;should;be;relative;to
players;on;other;tours.
Not surprisingly, they have produced an alternative
system—using;what’s;called;a;fixed-effect;statistical;model
(see;sidebar,;page;40)—they;say;will;eliminate;the;bias.;The
until now.
Broadie-Rendleman;“skill;rank”;would;better;determine
the;relative;ability;of;a;player;on;the;PGA;Tour;versus;a
European;Tour;or;even;a;OneAsia;tour;player.;Using;a
tabulation;that;factored;in;common;opponents;and;com-mon;venues,;the;skill;rank;would;rate;all;tour;players;based
on;the;comparative;strength;of;their;scores;in;each;tour-nament.;The;key;contrast;to;the;existing;system;is;that;it
would;not;pre-weight;points;based;on;a;tournament’s;sub-jectively;judged,;assigned;importance.
“The;fact;that;there;is;bias;means;there;is;an;impact;on
players,” says Broadie, the Carson Family Professor of
Business;at;Columbia;Business;School;and;a;part;of;the;team
that;developed;the;PGA;Tour’s;sophisticated;but;extremely
revealing;strokes;gained/putting;statistic.;“No;system;is;per-
fect,;but;there;are;many;choices;for;good;systems;that;don’t
have;this;bias.;While;you;may;never;be;able;to;correctly;iden-
tify;the;48th;golfer;versus;the;55th;golfer;in;the;world,;you
can;design;a;system;where;it;doesn’t;kind;of;arbitrarily;help
a;golfer;on;one;tour;and;hurt;a;golfer;on;another;tour.”
As;an;example,;Broadie;and;Rendleman;cite;Nick;Watney
and;Yuta;Ikeda,;two;players;with;similar;OWGR;ranks,;but;who
