List_of_World_Number_One_male_golfers

List of world number one male golfers

List of world number one male golfers

Add article description

The following is a list of golfers who have been top of the Official World Golf Ranking (originally known as the Sony Ranking), since the rankings started on April 6, 1986. As of April 21, 2024, Scottie Scheffler is the number one ranked golfer.

Tiger Woods, the record holder of most weeks spent as world No. 1.

The rankings are calculated each week based on finishing positions in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolling" two-year period with a maximum of 52 tournaments and a minimum divisor of 40 events. During 2018, nearly 400 tournaments on 20 tours were covered by the ranking system. All players competing in these tournaments are included in the rankings. In 2023, 24 tours factored into the world rankings.

A total of 25 different golfers from ten countries spanning four continents have been ranked world number one. Five countries; the United States, England, Australia, Spain and Germany have had multiple world number ones. The United States has had nine golfers ranked number one, the most of any country.

Tiger Woods has spent the most consecutive weeks (281) and most total weeks (683) at the top of the rankings, and Tom Lehman the fewest total weeks, having spent just a single week at the top in April 1997. Three golfers have spent an entire calendar year atop the rankings: Nick Faldo (1993), Greg Norman (1996), and Woods (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009). Lee Westwood and Luke Donald are the only world number one golfers to have not won a major championship.

Number one ranked men

Note 1: In the first column, each number signifies the first time that golfer was ranked number one.
Note 2: In the "Cumulative total" column, each boldface number signifies total weeks as of the most recent time that golfer was ranked number one.
Bernard Langer crouched down to analyze a shot.
Bernhard Langer was the first golfer to be ranked world No. 1.
Professional headshot of Greg Norman.
Greg Norman spent the most weeks atop of the world rankings in both the 1980s and 1990s.
Nick Faldo headshot.
Nick Faldo is one of only three players to have held the world No. 1 ranking for an entire calendar year, doing so in 1993.
Vijay Singh walking.
Vijay Singh was the only golfer other than Woods to be ranked world No. 1 in the 2000s.
Duston Johnson just after completing a drive
Dustin Johnson's 135 weeks spent atop the world rankings are the 3rd most of all time.
Rory McIlroy looking at his club.
Rory McIlroy was the world No. 1 for 94 weeks in the 2010s, the most of any golfer.
* Current number one player as of April 21, 2024
More information #, Country ...

Weeks at number one

* Current number one player as of April 21, 2024
More information Rank, Player ...

Order – indicates the sequence in which the players first reached number 1.
Majors – number of major championships each player has won throughout his golfing career.

Weeks at number one by country

* Country with the current number one player as of April 21, 2024
More information Rank, Country ...

Order – indicates the sequence in which the country first had a number 1 player.
Majors – number of major championships the country's world-ranked number 1 players have won throughout their golfing careers.
Players – number of players from that country who have been world-ranked number 1.
Top player – the player from that country who has spent most weeks as the world-ranked number 1 player.
First player – the player from that country who was first to be world-ranked number 1 player, left blank if that country has only one such player.
Latest player – the player from that country who was most recently world-ranked number 1 player, left blank if that country has only one such player.

Earlier number ones

Before the start of the Official World Golf Ranking in 1986, unofficial end of year world golf rankings were published by Mark McCormack in his World of Professional Golf annual from 1968 to 1985. McCormack's rankings listed Jack Nicklaus as the number one from 1968 to 1977, Tom Watson from 1978 to 1982 and Seve Ballesteros from 1983 to 1985.

See also

Notes

  1. The rankings were frozen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rankings were produced on March 15, 2020 and restarted on June 14, 2020. No rankings were produced for the 12 weeks between these dates and so Rory McIlroy's total weeks at number one do not include these 12 weeks.

References

General
  • "Official World Golf Ranking". Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
  • "Number 1 Golf Rankings". Retrieved 2012-03-20.
Specific
  1. [1]
    "Week ending April 6th 1986" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  2. [2]
    "Week ending November 22nd 1987" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  3. [3]
    "Week ending November 29th 1987" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  4. [4]
    "Week ending October 30th 1988" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  5. [5]
    "Week ending November 6th 1988" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  6. [6]
    "Week ending November 13th 1988" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  7. [7]
    "Week ending March 26th 1989" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  8. [8]
    "Week ending April 2nd 1989" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  9. [9]
    "Week ending August 20th 1989" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  10. [10]
    "Week ending September 2nd 1990" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  11. [11]
    "Week ending October 14th 1990" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  12. [12]
    "Lee Westwood is world golf No. 1". ESPN. 2010-10-31. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
  13. [13]
    "Lee Westwood becomes world number one as Kaymer falters". BBC Sport. 2010-10-31. Retrieved 2010-10-31.
  14. [14]
    Donegan, Lawrence (2012-03-05). "Rory McIlroy climbs to world No1 after Honda Classic win". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2012-03-04.
  15. [15]
    "Luke Donald back to World Number One after play-off victory at the Transitions Championship". Archived from the original on 2013-05-21. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  16. [16]
    "Luke Donald loses world No 1 ranking to Rory McIlroy". The Daily Telegraph. London. 2012-04-16. Retrieved 2012-04-16.
  17. [17]
    "Luke Donald finishes third in New Orleans to regain No1 spot". The Guardian. London. 2012-04-30. Retrieved 2012-04-30.
  18. [18]
    "McIlroy snatches world No. 1 ranking from Donald". ESPN. Retrieved 2012-05-07.
  19. [19]
    Corrigan, James (2012-05-27). "Luke Donald's PGA Championship master class at Wentworth takes him back to world No 1 spot". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 2012-05-28.
  20. [20]
    "Dallas resident, Texas alum Scottie Scheffler claims world No. 1 golf ranking, wins Dell Match Play". Dallas News. 2022-03-27. Retrieved 2022-03-27.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article List_of_World_Number_One_male_golfers, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.