In around three months time, just before the 2011 Masters Tournament tees off among the dogwood and azaleas at Augusta National, a significant milestone will be reached. The Official World Golf Ranking will be 25 years old.

And although the World Ranking may have confused some and irritated others in equal measure, it has become the yardstick by which all professional golfers are measured – and it’s here to stay.

As the Silver Anniversary approaches on April 6 next year, there has never been a better time to examine just how much the world of golf – and The European Tour in particular - has changed in the last quarter of a century.

Only 13 golfers to have reached the summit of the professional game, with England’s Lee Westwood being the most recent when he usurped Tiger Woods after 281 weeks at the top in October 2010, a year which, in the opinion of many observers, has been an annus mirabilis for The European Tour. It is a far cry from the dark days at the start of the new millennium when Westwood was the only Englishman in the top 100!

The Official World Golf Ranking was devised by Tony Greer, a master statistician working for the late Mark McCormack’s IMG company, and the very first bulletin revealed that Germany’s Bernhard Langer was the best player on the planet when the Ranking was launched in April 1986.

In that first week almost 25 years ago, there were three European players qualified for the Masters – defending champion Langer, two-time winner Seve Ballesteros and Sandy Lyle. How times have changed.

As 2011 approaches, there are currently 27 Europeans, and a total of 34 European Tour Members qualified to receive their precious invitations from the Masters Committee, although Ballesteros and Sir Nick Faldo have indicated they won’t be playing next year.

The statistics for the leading 100 players in the World Ranking make fascinating reading when compared with 25 years ago, when the United States ruled the roost with 60 players, the Rest of the World 25 and Europe 15.

As of January 1, 2011, European-born players will occupy 36 places in the top 100 with the United States and the rest of the world contributing 32 apiece.