Number of tournaments played DOES have a direct correlation to world ranking points in the real world. Tiger may not play as many tournaments, but always does exceptionally well, so even when he doesn't play for a year he is still No1.
Excerpt from world ranking system.
The World Ranking Points for each player are accumulated over a
two year “rolling” period with the points awarded for each event maintained for
a 13-week period to place additional emphasis on recent performances – ranking
points will then be reduced in equal decrements for the remaining 91 weeks of
the two year Ranking period. Each player is then ranked according to his
average points per tournament, which is determined by dividing his total number
of points by the tournaments he has played over that two-year period. There is a
minimum divisor of 40 tournaments over the two year ranking period.
The winners of the Masters Tournament, the US Open Championship,
the Open Championship and the PGA Championship are awarded 100 points (60 points
for 2nd place, 40 for 3rd, 30 for 4th down to 1.50 points for a player
completing the final round), and the winner of the Players Championship is
awarded 80 points (points are awarded down to 1.20 points for 60th place and
ties). The BMW PGA Championship has a minimum 64 points for the winner (points
to 56th place). Minimum points levels for the winners of official Tour events
have been set at 6 points for the Canadian Tour (points to 6th place), 12 points
for the European Challenge Tour (points to 14th place), 14 points for the Asian,
Sunshine and Nationwide Tours (points to 17th place), 16 points for Australasian
and Japanese Tours (points to 19th place) and 24 points for European and the
United States Tours (points to 27th place). In addition the Open Championships
of Australia, Japan and South Africa have a minimum of 32 points for the winner
(points to 37th place) and the Flagship events on the Asian and Nationwide Tours
have a minimum of 20 points for the winner (points to 22nd place). In the cases
of co-sanctioned Tour events, the minimum points levels are determined using the
“average” of the minimum Tour ranking points from each Tour (rounded up to
nearest whole number).
Points are reduced by 25% for tournaments curtailed to 36 holes
because of inclement weather or other reasons.
THe current system seems a bit pointless because it includes every round you play, rather than just tournament results. If the ranking system utilised a similar system to what is proposed I think that would work well. I think a higher weighting for single try tournaments is a good idea, because they really do change the level of nerves when you only get one crack.
I agree that handicapping is pointless - the tier system should sort that out anyway. Really that is the handicap system, regardless of how many people may see it as a problem as better players establish themselves when they join. Nothing will solve that problem for the intermediate player, no matter how hard we try.
Hope this makes sense - I really like the idea of a ranking system that means something, as this is a really great game which deserves the top players getting some recognition