I agree, you should also reward points for DENSE_RANK. It will do what the QOD asked for.

"Players who finish on the same number of strokes have to be given the same finishing place denoting that they will have an equal prize amount."

There is no mention of leaving gaps. DENSE_RANK will give the same rank as the question implies.

Don't penalize us because we don't play golf.

After all this is not sqlserverGOLFcentral.com. If it was I wouldn't be here!