The R&A and the USGA have announced modifications to the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).
From January 2020, a new system called the Power Method will be used to rank the world's elite amateur players.
As the European Men's and Women's Amateur Golf Rankings are extracted from the WAGR lists, they will be directly impacted by the changes.
Each WAGR counting event will now be given a 'power', based on the strength of the starting field, which will indicate the number of ranking points available to those competing.
The new system will place a greater emphasis on recent performance. This will be achieved by decaying points scored in events played more than 52 weeks prior by roughly 2% per week. It will make it easier for players to move up the rankings with good performances, but make it more difficult to remain highly-ranked.
Points will be awarded based on finishing position, rather than round-by-round, as was the case in the old system. This means that different event formats can now be used for the ranking, such as stableford. It also means that divisors will be event-based rather than round-based.
The full announcement can be viewed here.