Who is number 1 in golf? Why the top spot in OWGR changed at a record rate at the start of the 2022-23 PGA Tour season

Only two golfers occupied the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Ranking from July 1999 to October 2010. Through the first 60 days of 2023, three golfers took turns sitting at the top. mountain.

Rory McIlroy started the year at No. 1, but he was usurped by Scottie Scheffler after winning the Phoenix Open. Scheffler was then overtaken by Jon Rahm the following week after the Spaniard’s victory at the Genesis Invitational.

It is not uncommon for the world number 1 position to change hands many times a year. What was unusual, however, was how quickly it happened. Since the system was rolled out in the 1980s, the #1 spot has never changed hands more than once before March 1.

This trend says a few things.

The first is that sometimes a player has dominated and maintained the number 1 position for a long time. Tiger Woods has two separate periods lasting at least 250 weeks. The second is that it is unusual for more than two golfers to play with the same number one player in the world for a long time. Third, it’s unusual for players to do so in a non-championship environment at the start of the year.

No matter how you bet, Rahm, Scheffler and McIlroy are the three best players in the world. OWGR puts them in that order, and Data Golf — which has a very different formula than OWGR — agrees, arranging them a little differently with Rahm in first, McIlroy in second and Scheffler. in third place.

We could look forward to a year like 2012, in which there were seven No. 1 exchanges between Luke Donald and McIlroy. Or, maybe 2015 when there were eight between Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and McIlroy. We might even get a 2018 when we have ripe various exchanges of world number 1s between Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Justin Rose.

With the PGA Tour rolling out designated events in which almost all of the world’s top players compete, it’s not crazy to think the exchange rate of the world No. 1 will be in 2023. will increase every year. water.

In other words, stronger fields can generate more volatility at the top of the OWGR. Patrick Cantlay (No. 4), Cameron Smith (No. 5) or Xander Schauffele (No. 6) are all within impressive distances and could move to that top spot if they win any of the major events coming up. come as Player, Master or PGA Championship.

Rahm, who became world No 1 for the fifth time in his career on Sunday, is not in the mood to cede the top spot.

“If I don’t… get the number one spot at this point, I really don’t care,” Rahm said after the Riviera win. “I’ve won 5 of my last 9 starts, I’ve never finished worse than the top 7 and I’ve won 3 tournaments. I don’t need rankings to confirm anything, right? ?

“Having the best season of my life and hopefully I can keep it going. I’ve said before: To rank correctly, we’ll have to wait about a year and a half for all the points. That’s achieved, I don’t know if recycling is the right word, but for those who earned points before they changed the system so everything was in balance. I mean, if I get promoted to No. 1, I’ll be the third player to win No. 1 in the world in a little over a month and a half. You know, it’s been a beautiful year for us. alive, it’s exciting for us to play and it’s exciting for golf fans because things like this can happen.”

He’s right about the last part. Also, two of those players have recently peaked their careers, statistically at least. Data Golf holds the record for best 50-round strokes averaged for at least the past 28 years, and both Rahm and McIlroy recently hit their best 50-round hits, which is quite remarkable. Notice how well they play. career has been.

Maybe Rahm will grab the ball and run away with it for the rest of the year and no one else will sniff out the No. 1 spot until 2024 or so. But with how many tournaments to come, I’m not clear on that. No, I think the world rankings will see more change and movement than they have seen in a long time, especially in the top spots. That can be hard to keep up or understand for some, but as Rahm said, the quality of play and the number of golfers involved is a real treat for golf fans.