LADIES EUROPEAN TOUR CONSIDER PLAYER OF YEAR RANKINGS

FROM THE KHALEEJ TIMES WEBSITE
By ALEX LEACH
DUBAI — The Ladies European Tour (LET) are weighing up introducing a Player of the Year rankings system next year in order to give due recognition to regular performers on the circuit.
Ai Mizayato had already won this season’s Henderson Money List title ahead of the season-ending event here, the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters, in spite of playing only two LET events in 2011.
The five competitors beneath her had all played between 16 and 20 LET tournaments before the finale on Emirates Golf Club’s Majlis course. Victory at the US$3.25m Evian Masters earlier in the season made Miyazato's winnings  uncatchable for the rest.
However, a fresh initiative is potentially in the pipeline, whereby female golfers will be attributed points depending upon where they finish at each competitive outing and – thus – a truer reflection of supremacy could well prevail as a consequence.
“We’re looking at starting a Player of the Year rankings next year, which will be points based,” said Alexandra Armas, the executive director of the LET. “You then have the money list, which is based on earnings, and then you have the Player of the Year, who will have to have played consistently in Europe. “The Evian Masters will have slightly more points because it’s a major championship for us, but not too many.”
Armas readily concedes it’s “difficult” that the Evian Masters has had such a direct bearing on Miyazato’s dominant position, yet also pragmatically admits that the elite-level contests draw in the big bucks.
One prospective suggestion would be to make the Money List front-runner play a minimum amount on the LET, although that’s been done – and proven problematic – in the past.
“We used to have a scenario where, to play on the Money List, you had to play a minimum number of events,” Armas explained.