World Golf Ranking paused for foreseeable future during break in professional golf - Golf.com

So, what does it mean for golf in 2020? Well, the Tokyo Olympics are currently moving forward as scheduled, and spring/summer of this year was going to be the qualifying battle ground for the Olympic golf competition.

“This has proven to be a fair and equitable system and despite the freeze, we believe that the system remains fair to all athletes who are vying for qualification to the Tokyo Olympic Games,” said the International Golf Federation in a press release. “We have discussed this with the IOC, which fully supports the decision.”

At this moment, the Americans currently qualified are Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay and Patrick Reed. That was not the case three weeks ago. Webb Simpson was on the inside (ranked third, actually) but did not play the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He didn’t need to. The Players Championship was a course he’s thrived at, and he’d likely remain inside the qualification standards after playing at Sawgrass.

Unfortunately for Simpson, the Players never finished, his four under first round was struck from the record, and, notably, he was stuck at 5th in terms of Americans trying to qualify for Tokyo. Four get in; five do not.

So Simpson is now on the outside looking in, and without any pro golf on the immediate horizon, his opportunities to better his rank have been cut in half.

Will the Olympics happen as scheduled? Maybe, maybe not. Will there be pro golf played before then? Maybe, maybe not. But right now, the frozen world ranking has solidified the qualifiers if nothing else.

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