The World Amateur Golf Ranking for men was introduced by the R&A, the governing body of amateur golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

 outside the United States and Mexico, on 23 January 2007. It is based on the results of over 750 amateur tournaments and is updated weekly. Rankings are based on the players' average performances in counting events over a rolling 52 week period. Some notable tournaments on this list include: The Amateur Championship

The Amateur Championship

The Amateur Championship is a golf tournament which is held annually in the United Kingdom. It is one of the two leading individual tournaments for amateur golfers, alongside the U.S. Amateur...

, U.S. Amateur, and the European Amateur

European Amateur

The European Amateur Championship is an annual amateur golf tournament. It is played at various locations throughout Europe. It is organized by the European Golf Association and was first played in 1986. The winner receives an invitation to The Open Championship.-Winners:-External links:***...

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Like the Official World Golf Rankings

Official World Golf Rankings

The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of male professional golfers...

 for male professional golfers, the amateur ranking was initiated by the R&A to provide a more reliable means of selecting an appropriate field for one of its tournaments. The professional rankings were initially used to help set the field for The Open Championship

The Open Championship

The Open Championship, or simply The Open , is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. It is the only "major" held outside the USA and is administered by The R&A, which is the governing body of golf outside the USA and Mexico...

 and the amateur rankings play a role in selecting the field for The Amateur Championship

The Amateur Championship

The Amateur Championship is a golf tournament which is held annually in the United Kingdom. It is one of the two leading individual tournaments for amateur golfers, alongside the U.S. Amateur...

, which was previously selected mainly on the basis of national handicap systems. Other tournament organisers will be able to use the rankings to select players if they so wish.

In February 2011, the United States Golf Association

United States Golf Association

The United States Golf Association is the United States' national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the Rules of Golf. The USGA also provides a national handicap system...

 (USGA) endorsed the rankings and announced it will use them for an exemption category in all their men's amateur championships, including the U.S. Amateur, beginning in 2011.

The first set of rankings featured over 1,000 players from 46 different countries and was headed by the 2006 U.S. Amateur Champion, Richie Ramsay

Richie Ramsay

Richie Ramsay is a Scottish professional golfer.In 2006, Ramsay became the first British golfer in almost a century to win the United States Amateur Championship. He also won several other amateur titles and played in the 2005 Walker Cup....

 of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

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Chronology of World Number Ones

Player	Country	First week	Last week	Weeks	Total weeks
				2
				1
				17
				1
				1
				7
				3
				5
				22
				12
				5
				1
				6
				34
				5
				2
				20
				8
				18
				7
				2
				3
				3
				19
				2
				10
				1
				10
				25