Nicholson calls for potential changes to PDC Order of Merit system: “In my opinion the system has been inaccurate for the past couple of years”

Paul Nicholson during his latest column on Sporting Life has called for potential changes to the current Order of Merit system which had been used for a number of years.

Nicholson believes it is too top heavy and favours the top 10 and those who win the larger majors e.g World’s or World Matchplay.

“I think it’s about time the whole ranking system was tweaked because it feels lop-sided towards certain tournaments and makes it very difficult for those in the top 10 to slide down, and just as tough for those lower down to make significant climbs,” said Nicholson to Sporting Life.

“The World Championship has so much responsibility for where people are in the rankings and the next biggest event, the World Matchplay, is £350,000 behind it in terms of the winners’ cheque.

“The Order of Merit worked perfectly when the world champion was getting £100,000 but now they’re getting £500,000. The amounts in previous rounds are also far higher than they once were. More money has gone into the other events but not at the same rate.

“In my opinion the system has been inaccurate for the past couple of years now.”

Points based system

So how would Nicholson change it? ‘The Asset’ also spoke about a potential points based system being implemented like what is used in tennis with different tournaments holding different points.

“I’d want a points-based system introduced similar to what they have in tennis where certain calibre of events have points assigned to them, rather than it going off the prize money structure.

“You’d get most points allocated for the ‘majors’ – which would need to be defined properly because there’s a separate debate going on about what they include – another bracket for European Tour events and the lowest amount for the Players Championship events.

“However, the points on offer for those wouldn’t be so small because they don’t have a big enough impact on the rankings right now for me.

“They should still keep the various Orders of Merit they use specifically for qualification purposes – for instance the tables for the Players Championship Finals and the European Championship because that rewards those who have done well on particular tours.

However, the actual world rankings needs to be a points system with all the events graded into Tier A, Tier B and Tier C.”