Points are awarded for each event calculated on finishing position only and the amount of points available is essentially based on the strength of the field. 

The points are added up and then divided by the number of events that player has played in over the past two years. So, it’s based on average points rather than total points.

The four Majors have 100 points for 1st, The Players 80, the BMW PGA 64 and the Opens of South Africa, Australia and Japan 32. 

Every PGA Tour or European Tour event has a minimum of 24 whatever the strength of the field. The Asian, South African and Nationwide Tours have a minimum of 14 and the Challenge Tour 12.

If you make a cut you are not necessarily going to win some points because the breakdowns follow a similar pattern to prize money. 

For an event where the winner gets 24 points the top 27 players get world ranking points whereas in a Major everyone who makes the cut gets some points.

Points won in the past 13 weeks are full value then after that there is a linear decrease until they are two years old. Imagine a corridor and you have 13 paces until you get down to an escalator which goes down a further 91 steps. Then, with every performance, you are effectively taking a step forward. The system  is completely transparent.

It is very similar to the handicap system. Let’s say a player is off 5.0, if he doesn’t play well then he goes up to 5.1 whereas, if he doesn’t play, he stays at 5.0. 

So the guy who doesn’t play can go ahead of the one who did. It is not about playing as many events as possible and winning as many points but a part of it is that players are losing points as well as gaining them.

Edoardo Molinari played the Challenge Tour in 2009, and dominated it, and then won the Dunlop Phoenix, Japan’s top-rated event. 

By then he was in the top 60 so the ranking does give scope for a rapid climb. Mark Wilson, who has already won twice on the PGA Tour this year, ended 2010 in 230th and is now up to 51st and his momentum will be taking him further forward. 

If you look at the points-lost column Westwood has lost 38, Woods 45, Mickelson 39 – Wilson has only lost seven.

If you play your very best and finish 5th in a weaker event and, based on a similar level of play, 10th in a stronger event the system will award you the same points so it’s working well. Players ask how they can manage their schedules to win more ranking points but that is virtually impossible. My advice is play courses where you think you are going to play well.

If a player has a divisor (number of events played) of 60 and he then won an event worth 60 points then his average would improve by one point. 

If a player has a divisor of 40, which is the minimum, then the average would improve by 1.5. So the player with the lower divisor will make a bigger jump. The other side is that that player will fall more rapidly as well.

It was a valid point so, from the beginning of last year, a cap was put on the number of events that would count which was 60. 

The decision was that that would be brought down to 52, dropping it by two events every six months. 

• View the list at www.owgr.com - it makes for fascinating reading (especially a glance in the 150-250 bracket)!