Scottie Scheffler’s Players Championship victory moved the 26-year-old Texan back to world No. 1.
In what was the third change atop the Official World Golf Ranking this calendar year, Scheffler, who beat the field by five shots Sunday at TPC Sawgrass bumped Friday withdrawal Jon Rahm from the No. 1 position the Spaniard had held since taking it from Scheffler on Feb. 19 after winning the Genesis Invitational.
Rahm fell to No. 2 while Rory McIlroy, No. 1 from Oct. 23 of last year to Feb. 11, remained third despite his missed cut at The Players.
Max Homa, T-6, moved to sixth, sending Xander Schauffele back a spot to seventh. Viktor Hovland, who shared third, reentered the top 10, jumping from No. 11 to No. 9. He’s now followed by Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa.
Back to Scheffler, he’s now spent 32 weeks at world No. 1, tying him for 13th all-time with Vijay Singh. Nick Price and his 44 weeks are next up to catch. Rahm stands at 46 career weeks at No. 1; McIlroy at 122.
The number of times No. 1 has changed hands this year is already more than last year (twice) and equal to 2021. Five changes happened in both 2019 and 2020, following 2018, where No. 1 switched hands a whopping nine times – and that started in May with Justin Thomas taking No. 1 from Dustin Johnson.
Further down the world rankings, Rickie Fowler, who ended last year outside the top 100, is back up to No. 59, up 12 spots after his T-13 Players finish. Fowler is now in position to qualify for next week’s WGC-Dell Match Play, which will include the top 64 players in the world. Usually there are a handful of WDs, but with the event, the final match-play contest for the foreseeable future, offering a $20 million purse, there figures to be fewer than usual, if any.
Adam Hadwin, also T-13 on Sunday, went from No. 67 to No. 61.