Every player’s OWGR movement in 2022: From Ben Griffin to DJ, and the 2,903 players in between

When it comes to the Official World Golf Ranking, no player had a better season than Rory McIlroy.

McIlroy’s 88.89% improvement in the rankings might’ve been second best in the world behind Ben Griffin (93.46%), but Griffin couldn’t claim the No. 1 spot like McIlroy did to end the year.

Both McIlroy and Griffin were among the 16 players whose rankings were up by more than 80% this year, a list that also includes world Nos. 2 and 3, Scottie Scheffler and Cameron Smith, as well as rising stars Will Zalatoris, Sahith Theegala and Cameron Young.

The downs were highlighted by some big names, which wasn’t surprising considering what has happened this year with LIV Golf, the PGA Tour and OWGR. Dustin Johnson (-1,266.67%) fell the most, percentage wise, followed by Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson and three other LIV members in the bottom 10.

Tiger Woods was down 125.09%, from No. 566 to No. 1,274, a year after declining by a world-worst 1,280.49%, though he played just three events, all majors, after missing over a year following his severe car accident in February 2021.

And then there were the players who didn’t move at all. Five of them, to be exact: Patrick Cantlay (4), Xander Schauffele (6), Jordan Spieth (14), Taylor Moore (121) and Stefano Mazzoli (732).

Here is a closer look at some notable names who either rose or fell in the OWGR this year, plus a full breakdown of every players’ movement from the end of 2021 to now:

UP

Ben Griffin
+1,630 | No. 1,744 to No. 114 (93.46%)

Just over a year ago, Griffin was working a desk job. Now, he’s a PGA Tour rookie and on the verge of cracking the top 100 in the OWGR.

After graduating from North Carolina and struggling his first few years as a pro, Griffin quit touring golf in spring 2021 because of financial issues and started working as a mortgage loan officer. A few months into the job, though, Griffin decided to make a brief return and ended up Monday qualifying for a KFT event. That eventually led to Q-School, which he also got through, and after notching a trio of runners-up and finishing eighth on last season’s KFT points list, Griffin earned his Tour card for the first time.

A T-3 at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship highlighted his first seven events as an official Tour member as he’s currently No. 29 in FedExCup points.

“I can go out there and just try to win golf tournaments,” Griffin said prior to the final round in Bermuda, where he led by two shots with six holes to play before falling two short. “You see the best players in the world kind of have that mindset and it’s because they’re not thinking about anything except trying to win. When I came back to golf, all my sponsors and everyone has allowed me to think about winning. I haven’t won in the last year, I’ve had a lot of second-place finishes and been in contention a lot. I feel like my time’s coming pretty soon.”

Sahith Theegala
+338 | No. 381 to No. 43 (88.71%)

Theegala was poised for a big year, and he delivered.

The Pepperdine product turned pro in summer 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the reigning NCAA player of the year but without any status. But he earned his way into the 2021 KFT Finals via non-member FedExCup points and became a PGA Tour member last fall. He tied for eighth in just his second start as a Tour member, at the Sanderson.

But 2022 is when Theegala took off. He officially arrived on the big stage at the WM Phoenix Open in February, tied for the lead with two holes to play before hitting his tee shot at No. 17 into the water and eventually tying for third. He got emotional afterward, breaking down in his parents’ arms, but he’d put himself in contention plenty more.

After Phoenix, Theegala posted seven more top-10s this year, including most recently tying for second at the RSM Classic. He also made the Tour Championship this year (impressively, he did so despite not ranking inside the top 50 in any of the four major strokes-gained categories) and, in turn, qualified for next year’s Masters.

“It’s just awesome to be in this position,” Theegala said Sunday of the RSM. “I feel like I’m getting more and more comfortable and also don’t necessarily have to play my A-plus- or A-game to get there, whereas I felt like the first couple times, like in Phoenix and even at Sanderson, I was playing like as good as I could I feel like almost in those couple events. The last couple times I’ve been in the top 10, it’s felt a lot more, I don’t want to say easier, but I can feel the progression in my game, I can see the progression in my game. That’s a big positive.”

Cameron Smith
+18 | No. 21 to No. 3 (85.71%)

Obviously, the emergence of LIV Golf and the continued fight by the Saudi-backed tour to earn world-ranking points amid PGA Tour suspensions has caused many LIV members to plummet in the OWGR.

Smith, however, was an exception.

The Aussie didn’t sign with LIV until after this year’s Tour Championship, when he was second in the world. He’s now third thanks in large part to an impressive first seven months (wins at Sentry TOC, The Players and The Open, plus a T-3 at the Masters) and a victory last month at the Australian PGA, which is co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour.

That said, maintaining his world rank through 2023 will be tough, unless Smith, who jumped from outside the top 50 to fifth in strokes gained approach last season, performs well in the majors and occasional starts on international tours or if LIV somehow is awarded world-ranking points.

“I think it’s really a shame that we are not getting world-ranking points out here,” Smith said in his first LIV press conference near Boston. “To have 48 of the best, you know, guys around the world playing and not to get world-ranking points, I think, is perhaps a little bit unfair.”

Davis Thompson
+864 | No. 1,038 to No. 174 (83.24%)

Talk about being humbled right out of the gates.

Thompson, a former world No. 1 amateur and University of Georgia standout, was part of the inaugural PGA Tour University class two summers ago, finishing second in that program to earn his Korn Ferry Tour card. But he opted to play mostly PGA Tour events via sponsor exemptions that first summer and didn’t crack the top 30 in any of his six starts.

“I mean, that’s kind of like the fairytale way to do it: Get sponsor exemptions right out of college and play well and get your card,” Thompson said. “It’s really hard to do, to immediately transition from college to playing really well professionally. … I feel like the more normal route is what I’m doing.”

Thompson went to Q-School last winter and re-earned KFT status. He then won once and ended up No. 16 in points to graduate to the Tour. He was fourth on the KFT in total driving last season and currently ranks 19^th in strokes gained off the tee this season on the PGA Tour.

Norman Xiong
+1,305 | No. 1,744 to No. 439 (74.83%)

Once a can’t-miss prospect who swept college golf’s player of the year awards in 2018, Xiong had zero world-ranking points at the end of last year. He was ranked No. 1,744, aka tied for last.

But then he went and qualified for the KFT’s Wichita Open in June – and he won.

“I guess this concludes Chapter 1,” Xiong said after shooting 26 under, the second lowest mark ever on the KFT, that week. “I feel so much different than I did when I was out here last year, a few years ago.”

At the end of the season, Xiong was No. 48 in KFT points, and though he’d failed to earn his PGA Tour card at KFT Finals, he had full status locked up on the KFT for 2023.

Kaito Onishi
+417 | No. 558 to No. 141 (74.73%)

As far as pro debuts go, Onishi’s was a first.

Onishi left the USC team prior to regionals of his senior year in May 2021 to turn pro and compete in a Japan Tour event. He then shot 62 in the third round and was tied for fourth, just four shots off the lead, when he was disqualified.

The reason for the DQ: Onishi had violated tournament and government COVID-19 regulations that required him to isolate for 14 days upon arrival from the U.S. He had produced a negative PCR test and was permitted by the tournament sponsor to compete before Japan Tour officials became aware of his situation prior to the final round.

“I have misunderstood the rules of the restriction period,” Onishi said in a statement back then. “I deeply apologize to every member of this tournament and golf fans for my misbehavior. I promise to do my best from now on.”

He kept his promise and notched five top-10s last year between the Japan Tour and Abema TV Tour. He did even better this year, posting nine top-10s, including a win, all on the Japan Tour while also earning his Korn Ferry Tour card for 2022 at Q-School.

J.J. Spaun
+205 | No. 291 to No. 86 (70.45%)

Spaun was misdiagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2018, and it wasn’t until the middle of 2021 that he found out he was actually late-onset Type 1.

“I went through two years of struggling,” said Spaun, who almost dropped out of the top 600 in the OWGR last year. “I’m not blaming that, but that was another contributing factor.”

Now healthy, Spaun is back inside the top 100, at No. 86. He won the Valero Texas Open this year and the next week tied for 23^rd in his Masters debut. At No. 34 in the FedExCup, he nearly made the Tour Championship, too.

The year prior, Spaun was No. 174 and had to regain his PGA Tour card via KFT Finals.

“I think maybe that was the best thing for me,” Spaun said earlier this year on the Subpar Podcast. “It’s not like it was a mental thing that I was taking for granted of being on Tour, but it was like, wow, you had something you wanted so badly and now it’s gone. Not even conditional status. … I was able to play good and get my card back, and I’ve just been playing good ever since then. I think it’s also due to a lot of the work that I put in between then with my swing and attitude and just overcoming everything.”

Other big risers

1,000 spots or more
Taiga Semikawa: +1,446, No. 1,744 to No. 298 (82.91%)
Pierceson Coody: +1,375, No. 1,744 to No. 369 (78.84%)
Chris Gotterup: +1,356, No. 1,744 to No. 388 (77.75%)
Jed Morgan: +1,178, No. 1,518 to No. 340 (77.6%)
Zack Fischer: +1,343, No. 1,744 to No. 401 (77.01%)
Cristobal del Solar: +1,335, No. 1,744 to No. 409 (76.55%)
Andrew Kozan: +1,333, No. 1,744 to No. 411 (76.43%)

250 spots or more
MJ Daffue: +749, No. 897 to No. 148 (83.5%)
Justin Suh: +560, No. 675 to No. 115 (82.96%)
Taylor Montgomery: +299, No. 361 to No. 62 (82.83%)
Davis Riley: +295, No. 359 to No. 64 (82.17%)
Yuto Katsuragawa: +461, No. 577 to No. 116 (79.9%)
Pablo Larrazabal: +287, No. 362 to No. 75 (79.28%)
Ben Taylor: +521, No. 659 to No. 138 (79.06%)

80% and greater
Rory McIlroy: +8, No. 9 to No. 1 (88.89%)
Tom Kim: +116, No. 131 to No. 15 (88.55%)
Cameron Young: +118, No. 134 to No. 16 (88.06%)
Sepp Straka: +187, No. 214 to No. 27 (87.38%)
Ryan Fox: +185, No. 213 to No. 28 (86.85%)
Scottie Scheffler: +10, No. 12 to No. 2 (83.33%)
Kurt Kitayama: +208, No. 250 to No. 42 (83.2%)

DOWN

Collin Morikawa
-9 | No. 2 to No. 11 (-450%)

At 25 years old, Morikawa is, in fact, not old. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t feel like it during much of 2022.

Morikawa called this year a stressful one, and his body just didn’t feel right. He drove it basically the same as he did the previous season – a campaign in which he won twice on the PGA Tour, including The Open, and then later captured the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai – ranking 36^th in strokes gained off the tee for the second straight season. He improved almost 0.4 strokes per round on the greens as well. But while he dropped from No. 1 to only No. 3 in strokes gained approach, that amounted to about a fourth of a stroke’s difference per round. He also lost his cut for a period this summer.

In Morikawa’s words, “We took a couple steps back this year.” But after Trevor Immelman’s misunderstood “bar” comment a couple months ago, don’t think that Morikawa is just trying to get back to the level he played at when he won his first two majors.

He believes he can be better than that.

“I think I’ve got so much more to improve,” Morikawa said last month. “I’ve been near last on putting, and I don’t think I’ve even finished close to being average on putting. If I just get my putting to be average, I think there is so much more to improve. … For me, I’ve never seen a ceiling. I just want to keep improving.”

Webb Simpson
-98 | No. 27 to No. 125 (-362.96%)

Simpson will be going into the new year with a new instructor, having left his longtime teacher, Butch Harmon, late last year in favor of a new partnership with Cameron McCormick, who most notably works with Jordan Spieth.

“I feel like what he’s trying to get me to do is get me in positions that I’ve been in before,” Simpson said of McCormick at last month’s RSM Classic. “I think I’m going to blame myself; for a couple years there I tried to hit the ball so much further that I got into a number of bad habits that it was hard to see because it happens incrementally over time.”

Simpson notched just one top-10 finish last season on the PGA Tour, the first time he’s had fewer than 6 since 2015-16. He was able to crack the top 100 in driving distance, but as a result, he lost his iron game, slipping to No. 80 in strokes gained approach; he was sixth just two seasons prior. He also was No. 93 putting after being a top-25 putter in each of the previous four seasons.

So, it wasn’t just swing for the 37-year-old Simpson; it was a bit of everything. And it hasn’t gotten any better.

He capped the fall portion of this season losing over 1.3 strokes per round to the field.

Ondrej Lieser
-1,166 | No. 352 to No. 1,518 (331.25%)

Yes, he’s the guy who used to have the weird golf bag.

Lieser is just two years removed from representing Czech Republic at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Now, he’s outside the top 1,500 in the world rankings.

He capped his year with 10 straight missed cuts between the DP World and Challenges tours, and for the year made just two of 14 cuts. He had never missed more than six cuts in a year before that; he turned pro in 2012. The culprit for the poor play: a left-hand injury that plagued Lieser for half the year. And it got worse as Lieser capped his season at the Spanish Open while battling a fever, muscle aches and vomiting.

“Unfortunately, the year 2022 has not been good for me at all,” Lieser wrote on Instagram.

More recently, Lieser has been posting about offering lessons or to play golf rounds with people.

Charley Hoffman
-228 | No. 75 to No. 303 (-304%)

We miss Hoffman on Masters Thursdays.

Hoffman, who has been known to start hot at the year’s first major, hasn’t teed it up at Augusta National since his T-29 in 2019. And he doesn’t appear to be going back any time soon.

This past season on the PGA Tour, Hoffman had just two top-25s in 25 starts and finished No. 161 in the FedExCup. A year removed from being No. 34 in the season-long points race, Hoffman now will have to tap into his career-money exemption.

Perhaps the only headline – aside from the QBE Shootout earlier this month – that Hoffman made this season was for something other than his play. At the WM Phoenix Open, Hoffman went on an Instagram rant after what he described as a “joke” ruling he’d received.

“It’s still mind blowing that a group of amateurs rule the professional game of golf,” wrote Hoffman, a WM ambassador. “I also blame the PGA Tour rules officials for putting out a terrible penalty area line where this could even happen. No accountability at any level here. No protection for the players at all. You wonder why guys are wanting to jump ship and go play on another tour. Players need transparency, protection and consistency. We don’t have that under the current governing bodies.”

He then tagged several accounts, including the PGA Tour, Golf Channel and… the Saudi International.

“Sorry Jay!” Hoffman added.

Hoffman later attempted to clarify his comments, saying, “Hopefully a little bit of hard times for me going through this – probably going to catch a ton of crap – will make the game better.” The original post is now deleted.

Ryan Palmer
-130 | No. 47 to No. 177 (-276.6%)

Like his partner Charley Hoffman, Palmer didn’t earn world-ranking points for their T-2 at the QBE earlier this month. He’ll instead settle for just one top-10 in 21 worldwide starts this calendar year, the first time he’s done that since 2009.

The poor year came after Palmer climbed to No. 24 last year, just one off his career-best mark.

During what would be his lone top-10 of the year, a T-5 at the Nelson, Palmer told reporters, “All around the game is, the chipping, the driving, everything’s working right now.”

He ended the season having plummeted from No. 61 to No. 130 in strokes gained approach and No. 89 to No. 170 in putting. And in eight measured rounds this fall, he’s No. 170 in both strokes gained approach and, shockingly, off the tee.

Ollie Schniederjans
-817 | No. 367 to No. 1,184 (-222.62%)

Once considered one of the more promising members of that 2011 recruiting class along with Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, Schniederjans didn’t log a PGA Tour start this year and has just five since July 2019, when he capped an 180^th-place performance in the season-long FedExCup.

Even worse: He played just twice anywhere this year. And in those two January KFT starts in the Bahamas, he was solo 61^st and then withdrew after an opening 77.

Shortly after losing his KFT card in September 2021, Schniederjans wrote on Instagram, “Physically, I have realized the way I need to move and know how it feels at my best. I have battled issues physically throughout the last few years that have made things difficult from small injuries discomfort and inability to execute movement consistently at the level I know I need to in order to perform day in day out tee to green. This has been a tricky thing to figure out and manage with all the play and travel but I am looking forward to some offseason time to really focus on and address getting stronger better movement consistently so I can execute and feel the way I need to more often.”

He’s not posted again since.

But expect to see Schniederjans back in action, somewhere, in 2023.

Takumi Kanaya
-379 | No. 50 to No. 153 (-206%)

What a difference a year can make.

Last year, Kanaya posted 13 worldwide top-10s in 25 starts, including a win, a second and a third. This year, he had just five top-10s and missed a whopping 14 cuts in 25 events. Literally boom or bust.

But at age 24, there’s still plenty of hope the Japanese player can turn things around. He did cap the year with two top-7s on the DP World Tour in his last three starts.

Other big declines

1,000 spots or more
Austen Truslow, -2,251, No. 810 to No. 3,061 (-277.9%)
Kyle Jones, -2,216, No. 845 to No. 3,061 (262.25%)
Chris Paisley, -1,001, No. 383 to No. 1,384 (261.36%)
Evan Harmeling, -1,843, No. 740 to No. 2,583 (249.05%)
John Chin, -2,171, No. 890 to No. 3,061 (-243.93%)
Chase Johnson, -2,070, No. 991 to No. 3,061 (-208.88%)
Brendon Doyle, -2,027, No. 1,034 to No. 3,061 (-196.03%)

250 spots or more
Martin Kaymer, -358, No. 118 to No. 476 (-303.39%)
Steve Stricker, -917, No. 368 to No. 1,285 (-249.18%)
Andrew Landry, -379, No. 186 to No. 565 (-203.76%)
Jim Herman, -414, No. 208 to No. 622 (-199.04%)
Richy Werenski, -341, No. 189 to No. 530 (-180.42%)
Rafael Campos, -658, No. 373 to No. 1,031 (-176.41%)
Andrew Johnston, -320, No. 189 to No. 509 (-169.31%)

-300% or worse
Dustin Johnson, -38, No. 3 to No. 41 (-1,266.67%)
Bryson DeChambeau, -62, No. 5 to No. 67 (-1,240%)
Phil Mickelson, -180, No. 33 to No. 213 (-545.45%)
Matt Wolff, -121, No. 30 to No. 151 (-403.33%)
Jon Rahm, -4, No. 1 to No. 5 (-400%)
Louis Oosthuizen, -40, No. 10 to No. 50 (-400%)
Lee Westwood, -127, No. 37 to No. 164 (-343.24%)

Complete ranking

A look at the Official World Golf Ranking movement of every golfer who either started or finished 2022 with world-ranking points: