Who can challenge Rory McIlroy in 2023? These six golf stars have the best path to world No. 1
Only three men occupy the top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking 2022. Swapping between a few stars, Rory McIlroy is the player currently holding the spot as he reclaims his title for the second time. 9 in his career with a win at the CJ Cup in South Carolina in October. Having given up on it before and with OWGR taking on a relatively new shape, can the Northern Irishman hold onto the pole position through 2023 or will someone else take his place?
This previous year started with Jon Rahm on top of the golf world. An impressive start to 2022, Rahm finished runner-up at the Tournament of Champions and took the podium again a few weeks later at the Open Farmers’ Championship. Winning a top 10 result at the WM Phoenix Open, that event kicked off Scottie Scheffler’s rise to the top.
Beating Patrick Cantlay in the playoffs in Phoenix, Scheffler went on to experience a historic matchup in the spring that included a victory two weeks later at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Overcoming the WGC Match Play, the Texan tennis player officially claimed the world No. 1 position with a victory at the backyard of the University of Austin, Texas.
Adding a little more space between him and the rest of professional golf, Scheffler scored his first major championship at masters. Four wins in a six-week period cemented him as the best player in the world. His position would stabilize with a runner-up at the US Open and the Charles Schwab Challenge but cracks began to appear in the latter part of the summer. Unable to turn his 54-hole lead in the Tour Championship into a FedEx Cup crown, Scheffler gradually saw a growing object in his rearview mirror. that object? Rory McIlroy.
His win at East Lake joins another at the Canadian Open as well as four top 10 finishes at major championships. With his win this past fall in South Carolina, McIlroy completed the climb to the top but nearly gave up during the winter months. If Scheffler wins the Hero World Challenge, where he ends up coming in second, then he will regain what he lost in a moment.
With such flexibility in the rankings, 2023 is likely to see many players make meaningful runs towards the world No. Previous holders like Scheffler and Rahm posed significant threats to McIlroy, as did Cantlay and Xander Schauffele. Will those closest to McIlroy go after him or will an outsider similar to Scheffler in 2022 make his mark?
The most potential roads to world No. 1
1. Patrick Cantlay (Current Rank: 4)
He has repeatedly reached number 3 in the world throughout 2022 but has never been able to break into the top two. Cantlay has always been among the best players in the world, and it could be a change to the PGA Tour schedule that ultimately propelled him to the next level. Looking at the OWGR website, only one player in the top 50 (not in the LIV division) had less than 40 official events contributing to their ranking, and that player was Cantlay.
With all the top players capable of competing in 13 advanced tournaments, 4 major championships and several others, Cantlay’s typical schedule of around 20 tournaments per season could become new standard. If so, it will only aid him as his game remains as strong as ever. With +2.08 strokes per round over the past two years, some distinction has come against him in 2022 as he loses in the knockouts at the WM Phoenix Open and RBC Heritage, and also finishes in runner-up at Rocket Mortgage Classic and Shriners Children’s Open. Cantlay is good enough to post a four-win season and I wouldn’t be surprised if it does in 2023.
2. Jon Rahm (5)
Starting last year as world number 1, Rahm got all the right things early and it looks like his 2021 will repeat that. The plans were halted when he gave up his No. 1 spot at WGC Match Play, and things took a turn for the worse when he dropped out of the world top 5 for the first time in three years. .
Rahm is back with three wins in his last 14 starts around the world in 2022, and while he is Technology are trending in the wrong direction from a stroke count perspective (+2.41 SG per round in 2019, +2.40 in 2020, +2.37 in 2021 and +2.20 in 2022) , this year represents a top bounce. The Spaniard remains the best golf ball driver in the world, and in the last five measured tournaments he averaged +1.45 putts per round. Unsustainable? Correct. But also potentially a sign of things to come.
3. Scottie Scheffler (2)
Well, he was the closest to McIlroy in early 2023 and would have nearly passed him without Viktor Hovland at the World of Heroes Challenge. Despite that, Scheffler’s decline in quality after his hot spring was mostly a result of his short game. With his hitter letting him down more times than not, the 26-year-old can still contest on a regular basis, thereby showing just how strong he remains for the rest of the game. match.
In 16 starts since putting on the green jacket at Augusta National, Scheffler has stood on the podium six times, including runner-up at the Charles Schwab Challenge, US Open, Tour Championship and Hero World Challenge. . During this time period, Scheffler is averaging -0.35 strokes per round, and while golf is far from straightforward, a return to grass form in early 2023 could mean a return to position. number 1 of the World.
4. Xander Schauffele (6)
The way Schauffele’s peers talk about him and his game will carry weight and in 2022 he’s finally showing what they’ve been preaching for years. After squandering a 54-hole lead at the WM Phoenix Open for the second year in a row, Schauffele enjoyed a lull with a low score coming from a rare miss at The Masters.
Since the glitch at Augusta National, Schauffele has racked up three wins, top four duels and five more top 20 finishes in his last 13 tournaments. This is the consistency we should expect from the 29-year-old — a consistency that has allowed him to score more than +2.10 shots per round in 13 of his 22 starts. beginning in 2022. Consistency will lead to controversy, and if true, the opportunity to be number 1 in the world will come to Schauffele.
5. Justin Thomas (8)
Ask yourself this: Is there any player that, when enabled, can get it just like JT? The answer is no. The 15-time PGA Tour winner hasn’t won many in the previous two seasons, but hopefully that will change in 2023. His two most recent wins were the 2021 Players Championship. and the 2022 PGA Championship, and while impressive, even Thomas understands that given his size, two wins in a season is just the bare minimum.
Thomas’s three best hits of the season are 2020 (+2.27 SG per round; 3 wins), 2018 (+2.27 SG per round; 3 wins) and 2017 (+2.22 SG per half). ; 5 wins). In 2022, Thomas got closer to the +2.20 range and hit +2.02 strokes per half thanks in part to a solid putting campaign. His typical strong iron play is lagging behind a bit and if it returns to historic levels, Thomas could dominate the world for the third time in his career.
6. Tony Finau (12)
Do you know who is the 12th ranked player in the world at the end of 2021? Scottie Scheffler. It’s certainly within the realm of possibility that Finau can match such a breakthrough, especially given the form he’s already peaked in 2022. top 10 finished in his first 10 events.
He is the oldest name on this list at 33, but age is just a number; Let’s not forget that Phil Mickelson didn’t win his first major championship until the age of 34. His average roll count shows the potential for him to be world No. Over the past 12 months, he’s ranked 10th in total strokes reached, fourth in the last six months and fourth again in the past three months when only McIlroy, Cantlay and Rahm have a lead over him.
