Harrison Crowe’s epic Golf Challenge NSW open triumph has seen the 20-year-old rocket up the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR), and when the numbers dropped this morning, no one was more surprised than Crowe himself.
“This is hectic!” Crowe said when he found out. “I was only worried about the WAGR (World Amateur Golf Rankings) when they come out on Thursday.
“I didn’t even know I could be on this one. I’m not professional; I thought it was for them only.”
“This is incredible.”
After starting the week ranked at 1691 on the all-comers list, Crowe’s victory on Sunday saw him vault an enormous 1304 places to 387 when the International Federation of PGA Tours updated the official list overnight.
Especially enthralling for the St. Michael’s gun when scanning the official list was the names of some of the game’s stars he now finds himself amongst.
LISTEN:
SEN Sport’s Vossy and Brandy talk to the freshly crowned NSW Open Champion Harrison Crowe this morning:
“I’m only ten spots behind Askay Bhatia, twenty spots behind Graeme MacDowell, he’s won a US Open.”
“Kieta Nakajima is at 233; he’s the only amateur sitting in front of me.”
With the Royal & Ancient and USGA’s World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) due to be updated on Thursday, Crowe should rightly expect to see his name well inside the World’s top 50.
Should Crowe take the plunge and accept full membership of the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia (PGATA), the NSW Open win gives him an exemption for the remainder of this year and the next two seasons.
However, he freely acknowledged that he was going to ‘take some time to think’ about his next steps during his victory celebrations on Sunday night.
With the benefit of full exemption on the PGATA, one of the spoils of victory, the benefits of his meteoric rise in the OWGR and amateur rankings will add some complexity to Crowe’s plans for 2022 and beyond.
Already guaranteed a start in the (British) Amateur, a top 50 WAGR ranking will also lock away Crowe’s place in the US Amateur.
Importantly, should Crowe remain in the top 500 OWGR or the Top 50 WAGR as of April 13th, he will be exempt into final Qualifying for this year’s US Open at the Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, in the middle of June.
A start in the 150th Open Championship at St Andrew’s could also be on the cards, with Crowe only needing to be in the OWGR’s top 1000 at the close of entries to be eligible for final qualifying.