List of World Number One male golfers
The following is a list of the 19 golfers who have risen to the top of the Official World Golf Ranking. As of November 27, 2016, Jason Day is the number one ranked golfer. Tiger Woods has spent the most consecutive weeks (281) and most total weeks (683) in that position. 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).
Number one ranked men
* | Current number one player as of November 27, 2016 |
# | Country | Player | Start date | End date | Number of weeks |
Cumulative total |
Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | FRG | Langer, BernhardBernhard Langer | April 6, 1986 | April 26, 1986 | 3 | 3 | [1] |
2 | ESP | Ballesteros, SeveSeve Ballesteros | April 27, 1986 | September 13, 1986 | 20 | 20 | |
3 | AUS | Norman, GregGreg Norman | September 14, 1986 | November 21, 1987 | 62 | 62 | |
ESP | Ballesteros, SeveSeve Ballesteros (2) | November 22, 1987 | November 28, 1987 | 1 | 21 | [2] | |
AUS | Norman, GregGreg Norman (2) | November 29, 1987 | October 29, 1988 | 48 | 110 | [3] | |
ESP | Ballesteros, SeveSeve Ballesteros (3) | October 30, 1988 | November 5, 1988 | 1 | 22 | [4] | |
AUS | Norman, GregGreg Norman (3) | November 6, 1988 | November 12, 1988 | 1 | 111 | [5] | |
ESP | Ballesteros, SeveSeve Ballesteros (4) | November 13, 1988 | March 25, 1989 | 19 | 41 | [6] | |
AUS | Norman, GregGreg Norman (4) | March 26, 1989 | April 1, 1989 | 1 | 112 | [7] | |
ESP | Ballesteros, SeveSeve Ballesteros (5) | April 2, 1989 | August 19, 1989 | 20 | 61 | [8] | |
AUS | Norman, GregGreg Norman (5) | August 20, 1989 | September 1, 1990 | 54 | 166 | [9] | |
4 | ENG | Faldo, NickNick Faldo | September 2, 1990 | October 13, 1990 | 6 | 6 | [10] |
AUS | Norman, GregGreg Norman (6) | October 14, 1990 | February 2, 1991 | 16 | 182 | [11] | |
ENG | Faldo, NickNick Faldo (2) | February 3, 1991 | April 6, 1991 | 9 | 15 | ||
5 | WAL | Woosnam, IanIan Woosnam | April 7, 1991 | March 21, 1992 | 50 | 50 | |
6 | USA | Couples, FredFred Couples | March 22, 1992 | March 28, 1992 | 1 | 1 | |
ENG | Faldo, NickNick Faldo (3) | March 29, 1992 | April 4, 1992 | 1 | 16 | ||
USA | Couples, FredFred Couples (2) | April 5, 1992 | July 18, 1992 | 15 | 16 | ||
ENG | Faldo, NickNick Faldo (4) | July 19, 1992 | February 5, 1994 | 81 | 97 | ||
AUS | Norman, GregGreg Norman (7) | February 6, 1994 | August 13, 1994 | 27 | 209 | ||
7 | ZIM | Price, NickNick Price | August 14, 1994 | June 17, 1995 | 44 | 44 | |
AUS | Norman, GregGreg Norman (8) | June 18, 1995 | April 19, 1997 | 96 | 305 | ||
8 | USA | Lehman, TomTom Lehman | April 20, 1997 | April 26, 1997 | 1 | 1 | |
AUS | Norman, GregGreg Norman (9) | April 27, 1997 | June 14, 1997 | 7 | 312 | ||
9 | USA | Woods, TigerTiger Woods | June 15, 1997 | June 21, 1997 | 1 | 1 | |
10 | ZAF | Els, ErnieErnie Els | June 22, 1997 | June 28, 1997 | 1 | 1 | |
AUS | Norman, GregGreg Norman (10) | June 29, 1997 | July 5, 1997 | 1 | 313 | ||
USA | Woods, TigerTiger Woods (2) | July 6, 1997 | September 6, 1997 | 9 | 10 | ||
AUS | Norman, GregGreg Norman (11) | September 7, 1997 | January 10, 1998 | 18 | 331 | ||
USA | Woods, TigerTiger Woods (3) | January 11, 1998 | April 11, 1998 | 13 | 23 | ||
ZAF | Els, ErnieErnie Els (2) | April 12, 1998 | May 9, 1998 | 4 | 5 | ||
USA | Woods, TigerTiger Woods (4) | May 10, 1998 | May 16, 1998 | 1 | 24 | ||
ZAF | Els, ErnieErnie Els (3) | May 17, 1998 | June 13, 1998 | 4 | 9 | ||
USA | Woods, TigerTiger Woods (5) | June 14, 1998 | March 27, 1999 | 41 | 65 | ||
11 | USA | Duval, DavidDavid Duval | March 28, 1999 | July 3, 1999 | 14 | 14 | |
USA | Woods, TigerTiger Woods (6) | July 4, 1999 | August 7, 1999 | 5 | 70 | ||
USA | Duval, DavidDavid Duval (2) | August 8, 1999 | August 14, 1999 | 1 | 15 | ||
USA | Woods, TigerTiger Woods (7) | August 15, 1999 | September 4, 2004 | 264 | 334 | ||
12 | FJI | Singh, VijayVijay Singh | September 5, 2004 | March 5, 2005 | 26 | 26 | |
USA | Woods, TigerTiger Woods (8) | March 6, 2005 | March 19, 2005 | 2 | 336 | ||
FJI | Singh, VijayVijay Singh (2) | March 20, 2005 | April 9, 2005 | 3 | 29 | ||
USA | Woods, TigerTiger Woods (9) | April 10, 2005 | May 21, 2005 | 6 | 342 | ||
FJI | Singh, VijayVijay Singh (3) | May 22, 2005 | June 11, 2005 | 3 | 32 | ||
USA | Woods, TigerTiger Woods (10) | June 12, 2005 | October 30, 2010 | 281 (record) | 623 | ||
13 | ENG | Westwood, LeeLee Westwood | October 31, 2010 | February 26, 2011 | 17 | 17 | [12][13] |
14 | DEU | Kaymer, MartinMartin Kaymer | February 27, 2011 | April 23, 2011 | 8 | 8 | |
ENG | Westwood, LeeLee Westwood (2) | April 24, 2011 | May 28, 2011 | 5 | 22 | ||
15 | ENG | Donald, LukeLuke Donald | May 29, 2011 | March 3, 2012 | 40 | 40 | |
16 | NIR | McIlroy, RoryRory McIlroy | March 4, 2012 | March 17, 2012 | 2 | 2 | [14] |
ENG | Donald, LukeLuke Donald (2) | March 18, 2012 | April 14, 2012 | 4 | 44 | [15] | |
NIR | McIlroy, RoryRory McIlroy (2) | April 15, 2012 | April 28, 2012 | 2 | 4 | [16] | |
ENG | Donald, LukeLuke Donald (3) | April 29, 2012 | May 5, 2012 | 1 | 45 | [17] | |
NIR | McIlroy, RoryRory McIlroy (3) | May 6, 2012 | May 26, 2012 | 3 | 7 | [18] | |
ENG | Donald, LukeLuke Donald (4) | May 27, 2012 | August 11, 2012 | 11 | 56 | [19] | |
NIR | McIlroy, RoryRory McIlroy (4) | August 12, 2012 | March 24, 2013 | 32 | 39 | ||
USA | Woods, TigerTiger Woods (11) | March 25, 2013 | May 17, 2014 | 60 | 683 (record) | ||
17 | AUS | Scott, AdamAdam Scott | May 18, 2014 | August 2, 2014 | 11 | 11 | |
NIR | McIlroy, RoryRory McIlroy (5) | August 3, 2014 | August 15, 2015 | 54 | 93 | ||
18 | USA | Spieth, JordanJordan Spieth | August 16, 2015 | August 29, 2015 | 2 | 2 | |
NIR | McIlroy, RoryRory McIlroy (6) | August 30, 2015 | September 5, 2015 | 1 | 94 | ||
USA | Spieth, JordanJordan Spieth (2) | September 6, 2015 | September 12, 2015 | 1 | 3 | ||
NIR | McIlroy, RoryRory McIlroy (7) | September 13, 2015 | September 19, 2015 | 1 | 95 | ||
19 | AUS | Day, JasonJason Day | September 20, 2015 | September 26, 2015 | 1 | 1 | |
USA | Spieth, JordanJordan Spieth (3) | September 27, 2015 | October 17, 2015 | 3 | 6 | ||
AUS | Day, JasonJason Day (2) | October 18, 2015 | November 7, 2015 | 3 | 4 | ||
USA | Spieth, JordanJordan Spieth (4) | November 8, 2015 | March 26, 2016 | 20 | 26 | ||
AUS | Day, JasonJason Day (3) * | March 27, 2016 | Present | 36 | 40 |
Weeks at number one
* | Current number one player as of November 27, 2016 |
Rank | Player | Country | Weeks | Order | Majors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Woods, TigerTiger Woods | United States | 683 | 9 | 14 |
2 | Norman, GregGreg Norman | Australia | 331 | 3 | 2 |
3 | Faldo, NickNick Faldo | England | 97 | 4 | 6 |
4 | McIlroy, RoryRory McIlroy | Northern Ireland | 95 | 16 | 4 |
5 | Ballesteros, SeveSeve Ballesteros | Spain | 61 | 2 | 5 |
6 | Donald, LukeLuke Donald | England | 56 | 15 | 0 |
7 | Woosnam, IanIan Woosnam | Wales | 50 | 5 | 1 |
8 | Price, NickNick Price | Zimbabwe | 44 | 7 | 3 |
9 | Day, JasonJason Day * | Australia | 40 | 19 | 1 |
10 | Singh, VijayVijay Singh | Fiji | 32 | 12 | 3 |
11 | Spieth, JordanJordan Spieth | United States | 26 | 18 | 2 |
12 | Westwood, LeeLee Westwood | England | 22 | 13 | 0 |
13 | Couples, FredFred Couples | United States | 16 | 6 | 1 |
14 | Duval, DavidDavid Duval | United States | 15 | 11 | 1 |
15 | Scott, AdamAdam Scott | Australia | 11 | 17 | 1 |
16 | Els, ErnieErnie Els | South Africa | 9 | 10 | 4 |
17 | Kaymer, MartinMartin Kaymer | Germany | 8 | 14 | 2 |
18 | Langer, BernhardBernhard Langer | West Germany | 3 | 1 | 2 |
19 | Lehman, TomTom Lehman | United States | 1 | 8 | 1 |
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.
Earlier number ones
Before the start of the Official World Golf Ranking in 1986, unofficial world golf rankings were published in Mark McCormack's World of Professional Golf Annual from 1968 to 1985. These annual world golf rankings gave Jack Nicklaus as the number one from 1968 to 1977, Tom Watson from 1978 to 1982 and Seve Ballesteros from 1983 to 1985.
References
- General
- "Official World Golf Ranking". Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
- "Number 1 Golf Rankings". Retrieved 2012-03-20.
- Specific
- ↑ "Week ending April 6th 1986" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
- ↑ "Week ending November 22nd 1987" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
- ↑ "Week ending November 29th 1987" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
- ↑ "Week ending October 30th 1988" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
- ↑ "Week ending November 6th 1988" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
- ↑ "Week ending November 13th 1988" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
- ↑ "Week ending March 26th 1989" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
- ↑ "Week ending April 2nd 1989" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
- ↑ "Week ending August 20th 1989" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
- ↑ "Week ending September 2nd 1990" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
- ↑ "Week ending October 14th 1990" (pdf). Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
- ↑ "Lee Westwood is world golf No. 1". ESPN. 2010-10-31. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
- ↑ "Lee Westwood becomes world number one as Kaymer falters". BBC Sport. 2010-10-31. Retrieved 2010-10-31.
- ↑ Donegan, Lawrence (2012-03-05). "Rory McIlroy climbs to world No1 after Honda Classic win". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2012-03-04.
- ↑ "Luke Donald back to World Number One after play-off victory at the Transitions Championship". Retrieved 2012-03-20.
- ↑ "Luke Donald loses world No 1 ranking to Rory McIlroy". The Daily Telegraph. London. 2012-04-16. Retrieved 2012-04-16.
- ↑ "Luke Donald finishes third in New Orleans to regain No1 spot". The Guardian. London. 2012-04-30. Retrieved 2012-04-30.
- ↑ "McIlroy snatches world No. 1 ranking from Donald". ESPN. Retrieved 2012-05-07.
- ↑ 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.