She's No. 2 ... Finally

another in a long line of bogus ranking adjustments in this Rolex system.  The women haven't played in over a month - but the rankings have changed.  

This is what happens when you let some computer geek run things instead of having a human being who knows little things like scheduling oversee the whole thing.

I'm not saying that Pettersson isn't the second best woman golfer - but her rise in the rankings started less than 2 years ago when Sorenstam and Webb were winning.  This whole system is a mess.

No changes to the Rolex formula lately.  They update the rankings every week, because every week, the tournament from 105 weeks ago drops off the charts and each new one from slots 104-to-? weeks ago (instead of 103-to-[?-1] weeks ago) gets weighted slightly less.  Since tournaments are played all over the world on different schedules (the LET's final event was just a couple of weeks ago in Dubai, for instance), it's easier for them to do weekly updates rather than take a break.

Look at Webb's wins in early 2007 in Australia.  As time passes, they'll get weighted less and less, so unless she starts winning again, she'll start dropping down the charts.  Even more pressing for her world ranking, however, is that the second half of 2006 when she played so fantastically will, fairly soon, stop being included at all in the rolling 104-week window that the Rolex Rankings track.

If you don't like the Rolex system (which to my mind values the majors too highly), check out the Sagarin system over at Golfweek (which only counts 52 weeks back and doesn't include results from the KLPGA) or look at Hound Dog's LPGA-only ranking system over at his blog.

To me, each system has its strengths and weaknesses, which is why I do my "Best of the LPGA" BCS-style thing every couple of months here and at Mostly Harmless.