Within these rankings pages, we'll have several links available, and updated weekly, on three rankings systems. Here's just a brief snapshot, from our perspective, on what these rankings mean:
(First, a note to parents - don't get too carried away with your young junior golfer's ranking. These are rolling 12 month rankings so each month there are events being added, and falling off, thus changing the rankings. These rankings will be more important as kids get into their high school years, and more importantly, their junior and senior year. Don't get too carried away trying to dramatically impact your child's rankings. Trying to do so puts pressure on the kids that they don't need, and there's very little advantage - keep it fun for the kids. Wherever they're ranked, it'll work out as they get older, and it will be fair.)
Polo Golf Ranking
The Polo Rankings are critically important in that most of the top invitationals in the nation will use this ranking system to determine which junior boys and girls will be invited to these high-profile events. Only certain events fall into Polo rankings. Points are given based on the finish of your junior golfer in those identified events. The more difficult the event, the higher point values assigned. All AJGA Open and Invitational events are included in the list of Polo Ranked events, but there are others as well. Explanations as to what events are Polo ranked, points levels for events, previous events, etc. are all available by navigating to the Polo Rankings tab on the AJGA home page on the left margin.
Golfweek Ranking
Terrific system, based on the same system the pros use. We think that all AJGA events, from what we've seen, are included in the Golfweek rankings. Most of the FCWT and IJGT events, for the oldest age groups, also fall into these rankings. Golfweek includes metrics for difficulty of schedule (based on events played and average scores for those events), and a "Wins, Losses, Ties" factor that is measured in four groups: vs. Top 25, vs. Top 50, vs. Top 100, and Overall. At this time, a player must have 6 Golfweek Ranked events currently in their rolling 12 months worth of schedule. In our opinion, the Golfweek Rankings seem to be the most accurate "apples to apples" comparison of players. A great barometer for a young golfer to measure where they're at against their peers, since their wins, losses and ties against the top 100 ranked kids is a common measuring stick. The reason for this seems to be that only the higher level events get into the Golfweek rankings, and as kids get older, they want to play in those higher level events. Plus, Golfweek is very specific on the requirements for an event to be ranked, and, they take very special care to ensure that the results and course ratings are accurate. That cannot be said for all tours or events that are reported to other rankings. If your junior achieves a certain status within the Golfweek rankings, he or she will be awarded either a Star or possibly an Exemption (or more than one) on their AJGA PBE status before the start of each AJGA season.
JGS Ranking
The Junior Golf Scoreboard is a terrific group and a great site for information - probably one of the better sites out there for all-inclusive info and resources. Their ranking system is run differently than the Golfweek system. First of all, for an event to be ranked for JGS, an event only needs to have 5 kids in an age group to be ranked. This invites several smaller, regional tours to submit their results to be ranked. The rankings are based on scoring differential (scoring against the reported course rating) which accounts for 65%, strength of schedule which accounts for 25%, and performance (wins, top 5's, top 10's and top 20's) which accounts for 10%. Two things that seem a bit interesting on these rankings. First, some of the smaller local tours don't seem to report the correct course rating for their events which can artificially improve the scoring differential for the juniors who play in those events. Encourage your local tours to be accurate with their reporting. There's a USGA formula for adding or subtracting from a course rating when mixed tees are used. The other thing we see is this: by playing in smaller tours, a child may increase their number of wins, top 5's, etc. which can improve their rankings (you can see who those kids are as they'll have lots of wins in very small events - still good experience but artificially improves their rankings while they're in their younger years). This all washes out as the kids get older since the kids all end up playing in the higher level events - again, getting to an apples to apples comparison. There is an advantage to being ranked high in the JGS in that there's an AJGA PBE status improvement, which gives kids a Star, or an Exemption (or more than one - see AJGA PBE) to start the year with.
