September 2025 Update
Here is my analysis of the Great British & Irish (GB&I) men’s amateur golf rankings as at 30th September 2025 (Quarter 3 – 2025).
I focus my attention on the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), Data Golf Amateur Ranking and Scoreboard U.S. College Ranking.
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My Player Of The Quarter
I have selected Connor GRAHAM (SCO) as my Player of the Quarter for September 2025.
Connor Graham (Photo: Oisin Kenny / R&A / R&A via Getty Images)
Here is a summary of Connor’s performances between July and September 2025: –
The 153rd Open Championship – Qualified / 150th
The St. Andrews Trophy Match v. Continent of Europe – GB&I Won / P4 W3 L1 (5th)
Farmfoods Scottish Challenge (Pro) – 12th
The U.S. Amateur Championship – SP 40th / MP Rd of 64 (v. Tyler Weaver)
The Carmel Cup – 13th
The Walker Cup Match v. USA – USA Won / P4 W2 L1 H1 (1st)
OFCC / Fighting Illini Invitational – 6th
Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational – 13th
To see my previous Player of the Quarter winners please refer to Appendix 1 below.
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World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR)
The table below shows the Top 40 GB&I players in the WAGR as well as their ranking movement during the first 9 months of 2025.
Tyler WEAVER (ENG), who is 12th, is the No. 1 ranked GB&I player in the WAGR.
Luke POULTER (ENG), Charlie FORSTER (ENG), Niall SHIELS DONEGAN (SCO), Eliot BAKER (ENG), Freddie TURNELL (ENG), Harley SMITH (ENG), Sam EASTERBROOK (ENG) and Zach LITTLE (ENG) have all materially risen up WAGR in 2025.
Click here to view the current – Men’s World Amateur Golf Ranking
For more information on WAGR please see Appendix 2 below.
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Data Golf Amateur Ranking
The table below shows the GB&I players in the Data Golf ranking at the end of September 2025.
Connor GRAHAM (SCO), who has risen to 20th, is the No. 1 ranked GB&I player in the Data Golf ranking.
This list is restricted to 500 players with GB&I contributing 43 players at the end of September.
The Data Golf amateur rankings are determined by averaging the field strength-adjusted scores of each golfer, with recent rounds receiving more weight. The index listed on the ranking – the DG Index – is this weighted average (adjusted slightly for players with fewer rounds played), and should be interpreted as their expectation for a golfer’s next performance, in units of strokes-gained relative to an average golfer in the Division 1 NCAA Championship, which they estimate to be about 2.3 strokes worse per round than an average PGA Tour field. That is, an amateur golfer with a DG index of +3 would be expected to beat the D1 NCAA Championship field by 3 strokes per round, and a PGA Tour field by 0.7 strokes per round.
The data used to form this ranking includes all WAGR-sanctioned events, and any professional events that amateurs happen to play in. To be eligible for the amateur rankings, a golfer must be an amateur, and have played at least 20 rounds in the last 2 years and at least 1 round in the previous 12 months.
It is updated weekly but it normally takes the team until the following Monday to catch up with the corresponding WAGR release.
Click here to view the current – Data Golf Amateur Ranking
Data Golf explain more about their approach and how the rankings compare to those of the WAGR in this article – Using The True Strokes-Gained Metric In Amateur Golf.
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U.S. College Rankings
Scoreboard powered by Clippd (formerly Spikemark)
The opening Fall Term Scoreboard 2025 /26 Men’s Division I U.S. College Individual ranking highlights which of our players have started the new playing year well over in the States.
There are only 3 GB&I players in the top 100.
The Scoreboard ranking system was developed in collaboration with Professor Mark Broadie who is widely known for his development of the ‘Strokes Gained’ statistical approach and more recently the latest Official World Golf Rankings algorithm that is used in professional golf.
Clippd introduced their first ranking on 11th November 2023 covering the 2023/24 U.S. College Fall Season.
Some “minor adjustments” have been made by Broadie to the ranking methodology in Year 2.
The new collegiate player and team rankings are a reward-for-performance system that factors in both strength of field and finishing position (with a significant premium for winning). Strokes Gained will be used to determine an event’s strength of field. Strokes Gained (at a neutral course) is a mathematical system which uses average round scores, adjusted for course difficulty and strength of field and then considers all indirect connections between players and teams through other players and teams who have previously competed against each other. Each player and team will earn and carry a ‘Spikemark Skill’ based on their past performances and the aggregate of this will determine how many ranking points are attributed to an event. These ranking points will then be shared among the competing players and teams at each event, weighted in favour of their final finishing positions. The rankings will be based on average points in the season so that the number of events played does not become a determining factor.
Click here to view the current – Scoreboard.Clippd.com Rankings Website
Click here to view more information on the ranking methodology – National Collegiate Golf Ranking System
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European Amateur Order of Merit (EAOM)
On the 27th November 2025 the European Golf Association (EGA) announced the launch of new Men’s European Amateur Order of Merit (EAOM), featuring 16 events and commencing in 2026.
The EAOM aims to enhance the appeal of the international calendar for elite amateur players wishing to compete in Europe and promote the continent’s most prestigious amateur events.
In addition to the European Amateur Order of Merit titles, and medals for the top three finishers, the EAOMs will offer attractive rewards in the form of amateur and professional playing opportunities.
The inaugural season will be divided into three phases, the Front-Nine, Back-Nine, and Final Sprint. The concluding Final Sprint series will offer elevated points and additional rewards to promote a compelling finish to the season.
Each player’s six best results will determine their final ranking, and any player earning points in a counting event will appear automatically in the standings.
The complete schedule of counting men’s events for 2026 are: –
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Amateur Tournament Rankings
The WAGR‘s ‘Power Method’ provides clarity as to their approach to event ranking.
I have used its event ‘power numbers’ (PN) to create three 2025 Year To Date WAGR event rankings – U.S. Collegiate (Min. PN 200.0000), International (Min. PN 50.0000) and GB&I (Min. PN 20.0000).
My lists below cover competitions staged in the year to date and are restricted to events that have featured GB&I players.
For comparison purposes the full 2020-2024 tables are all shown in Appendix 5 below.
The following tables continue to highlight the strength of U.S. collegiate golf which as more and more players choose to go down this route impacts the field strengths seen elsewhere during term time.
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Turned Pro
Conor GOUGH (ENG) and Luke O’NEILL (IRL) were amongst the GB&I players who turned pro in Quarter 2 2025.
In addition Matt ROBERTS (WAL) announced that he was stepping away from the elite amateur game in August 2025.
Please refer to the Turned Pro section of this website to view my rolling record of notable departures.
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Appendices
Appendix 1 – Previous Golf Bible Player Of The Quarter Results
December 2025 –
September 2025 – Connor GRAHAM (SCO)
June 2025 – Eliot BAKER (ENG)
March 2025 – Freddie TURNELL (ENG)
December 2024 – No award made due to the limited number of events played (Winter).
September 2024 – Daniel HAYES (ENG)
June 2024 – Dominic CLEMONS (ENG)
March 2024 – Gregor GRAHAM (SCO)
December 2023 – Joshua BERRY (ENG)
September 2023 – Kris KIM (ENG)
June 2023 – Alex MAGUIRE (IRL)
March 2023 – Max KENNEDY (IRL)
December 2022 – No award made due to the limited number of events played (Winter).
September 2022 – Hugh FOLEY (IRL)
June 2022 – Matthew MCCLEAN (IRL)
March 2022 – Rory FRANSSEN (SCO)
December 2021 – Sam BAIRSTOW (ENG)
September 2021 – John GOUGH (ENG)
June 2021 – Laird SHEPHERD (ENG)
March 2021 – Jack DYER (ENG)
December 2020 – Alex FITZPATRICK (ENG)
September 2020 – Joe LONG (ENG)
June 2020 – No award made due to the limited number of events played (COVID-19).
March 2020 – Ben SCHMIDT (ENG)
December 2019 – No award made due to the limited number of events played (Winter).
September 2019 – Sandy SCOTT (SCO)
June 2019 – Euan WALKER (SCO)
March 2019 – Conor PURCELL (IRL)
December 2018 – Jake BURNAGE (ENG)
September 2018 – Conor GOUGH (ENG)
June 2018 – Mitch WAITE (ENG)
March 2018 – Billy MCKENZIE (ENG)
December 2017 – Ben JONES (ENG)
September 2017 – Todd CLEMENTS (ENG)
June 2017 – Matthew JORDAN (ENG)
March 2017 – Jack DAVIDSON (WAL)
December 2016 – No award made due to the limited number of events played (Winter).
September 2016 – David BOOTE (WAL)
June 2016 – Scott GREGORY (ENG)
March 2016 – Jack HUME (IRL)
Appendix 2 – World Amateur Golf Ranking Updates
On 2nd October 2025 The R&A and USGA announced that they were commencing a “substantive review of the WAGR system” with feedback sought from stakeholders.
WAGR also stated that they will be changing how the strength of events is calculated from January 2026. This change was outlined on 14th November 2025. Players who start events in 2026 will need to achieve a certain scoring standard, in relation to par, to contribute to the event’s Event Power. This change will be applied to the Power of all events included in the 104-week counting period starting with the publication of the Week 1 2026 ranking. Players who competed in the impacted events will see their rank adjusted, some significantly, when the results are reprocessed for the first ranking of 2026.
All of the post-2020 WAGR methodology announcements can be viewed here: –
WAGR Criteria Updates for 2026 (14/11/25)
WAGR System Review Announcement (02/10/25)
WAGR Criteria Updates for 2025 (04/11/24)
WAGR Criteria Updates for 2024 (17/05/24)
WAGR Criteria Updates for 2024 (24/11/23)
Changes to WAGR For 2023 (08/12/22)
Important WAGR Updates (28/10/21)
Understanding The Power Method (28/04/21)
Transition To The Power Method (24/12/19)
New WAGR Power Method From 2020 (20/11/19)
Appendix 3 – Historic Ranking Notes
The WAGR is undoubtedly the most important amateur golf ranking because of the credibility given to it by both The R&A and the USGA and because it is used by many events to assist with entry eligibility.
However, I always believed that the SPWAR was superior to WAGR so the death of its founder, Fred Solomon, in April 2023 and the collapse of his ranking represented a loss to amateur golf.
I discussed the reasons for this opinion in an article I originally wrote in February 2016 (and subsequently updated a few times afterwards) – ‘Why The SPWAR Is Better Than The WAGR’.
Please read my obituary of Fred Solomon here – Fred Solomon (1953-2023)
Appendix 4 – Historic Amateur Rankings
Since June 2023 I have maintained a record of the quarterly GB&I WAGR’s for our top 30 players.
Between December 2015 and March 2023 I used to compare the SPWAR and WAGR of our leading players and produce a ‘Combined’ ranking, aggregating and averaging out the two main amateur rankings.
These lists are all shown below: –
Period: June 2023 – September 2025
Period: December 2015 – March 2023
Appendix 5 – 2020-2023 WAGR Event Rankings
Here are the 2020-2023 WAGR event rankings based on its allocated ‘power numbers’. There is one each for U.S. Collegiate, International and GB&I events. Each list is restricted to events that have featured GB&I players.
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
ME.
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