Rory McIlroy or Brooks Koepka? That’s the question for PGA Tour pros about to submit their Player of the Year ballots.
But there’s no question who’s the No. 1 player in the world – and it’s not particularly close.
No. 1 Koepka leads No. 2 McIlroy by three full points in the Official World Golf Ranking.
That’s why McIlroy says his goal for the remainder of the year is to close the gap.
“It’s a goal to get closer, to keep playing well,” he told reporters ahead of the Omega European Masters. “I think I saw somewhere that there [are] more world-ranking points on offer here than there [have] been for eight years. Wentworth (BMW PGA) is obviously big for world-ranking points. There’s a WGC coming up. There’s still a lot to play for.”
McIlroy has spent 95 total weeks at No. 1 in the world during his career but hasn’t occupied the top spot since September of 2015.
After this week, he is scheduled to play the BMW PGA Championship (Sept. 19-22), Alfred Dunhill Links Championship (Sept. 26-29), Zozo Championship (Oct. 24-27) and WGC-HSBC Champions (Oct. 31-Nov. 3).
The final three events on the European Tour calendar follow in November.
“That’s my focus for the rest of the year,” he said, “getting closer to that No. 1 spot.”