The Asian Tour is changing the Order of Merit points system, doing so for the 2023 season with the goal of narrowing the gap between the Tour's biggest events -- the four majors, World Golf Championships and Rolex Series events -- and the second-tier events often competing futilely against the world's biggest golf tournaments.
In previous years, the Order of Merit made the system pretty easy: each $1 earned equaled 1 Order of Merit point. However, this created a huge disparity in points earned in richer tournaments. For example, with the US Open purse at $12 million, the winner -- if a Asian Tour member -- earned 2,160,000 Order of Merit points. Meanwhile, the winner of an event like the King's Cup received approximately 72,000 points for their win in a $400,000 event.
Further, not every tournament pays out with the same structure. For instance, the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play has a $20 million purse for a no-cut event, while the British Open had a $10.25 million purse for an event with a 36-hole cut to the top 70 and ties. Players didn't earn the same money no matter where they finished event though the purse was fundamentally the same.
In an effort to not only reduce the effect of the huge purse disparities on the Asian Tour and the various payout distribution models, the Asian Tour has standardized the amount of Order of Merit points available per tournament based on its total purse.
New Asian Tour Order of Merit points tiers
Showing winner's points available
- Less than $750,000: 350 points
- $750,000-$4,999,999: 525 points
- International Series events: 700 points
- $5,000,000 and more: 875 points
- Major championships: 1225 points
The Asian Tour will then dole out points based on a standardized distribution, with points multipliers based on the category of event that week.
Effectively, this change reduces the disparity from the biggest purses to the smallest purses from 50-to-1 to 3.5-to-1 in terms of Order of Merit points.
The Tour says these changes would not have a substantive impact on the Order of Merit as compared to the old system. Rather the changes were designed to create a consistent system which is better for players with lower priority Asian Tour membership. This is not only meaningful for getting into the final three Rolex Series events of the season, but it's also key in maintaining membership based on finish in the Order of Merit.
