Official World Golf Ranking - Discussion Caused By The "number One" Ranking

Discussion Caused By The "number One" Ranking

On a few occasions the ranking system has caused discussion about whether it has produced the "right" World Number One. This usually occurs when the number one ranked player has not won a major championship during the ranking period, while a rival has won more than one—notably at the end of 1990, when Nick Faldo remained ranked just behind Greg Norman despite winning three majors in two years. On that occasion, as detailed in Mark McCormack's "World of Professional Golf 1991" annual, it was also the case (but less immediately apparent) that Norman had won 14 events during the ranking period to Faldo's 10, and when the two had competed in the same tournament, had finished ahead of his rival 19 times to 11.

In April 1991, a quirk in the way the rankings treated results from previous years meant that Ian Woosnam, who had never won a major, took the number one spot from Faldo on the eve of the latter's attempt to win the Masters for a third year in succession; as if justifying the ranking system, Woosnam—and not Faldo—won the tournament. Twelve months later, Fred Couples similarly took over the number one ranking shortly before the 1992 Masters, then also went on to make that tournament his first major victory.

At the end of 1996 and 1997, Greg Norman had regained the top spot and remained narrowly ahead of first Tom Lehman, and then Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, in the rankings, despite his rivals enjoying major victories in those years while he won none. In 1998, Woods himself finished the year ranked number one, after a season in which Mark O'Meara won two major titles while Woods won just once on the PGA Tour. In March 1999, David Duval briefly became world number one after winning The Players Championship, his sixth victory in a twelve month period that came before his first major victory (which would follow two years later at the Open Championship).

Tiger Woods dominated the number one spot for the following five years, but when Vijay Singh won the PGA Championship in 2004 and with it took the number one ranking, the change highlighted the fact that Woods had not won a major for over two years. Woods responded by winning the very next major, the 2005 Masters, and with it regained the number one spot, which he would then retain for another five years. Following knee surgery in the summer of 2008, Woods missed the entire second half of the year, while Pádraig Harrington won two major championships, to add to the Open Championship he won in 2007. Despite earning no further ranking points during his absence, Woods remained number one on the ranking system in December 2008.

During 2010, there was much debate as to whether Woods' continued retention of the number one ranking (which he held up until the end of October) was justified given his relatively poor form—Woods finished fourth in two major championships in 2010, but failed to finish in the top ten of any other events he entered. During the 2010 season, several of his rivals for the number one spot - including Masters champion Phil Mickelson (who had won four majors since 2004 but had yet to reach number one in the rankings), Lee Westwood (who had yet to win a major but had finished second in both the Masters and Open Championships in 2010), and then Martin Kaymer (who had won the PGA Championship among four worldwide wins)— each missed opportunities to win particular events that would have taken them above Woods, before Westwood finally became world number one on October 31.

During 2011, the possession of the number one ranking would be the subject of much discussion among European golf commentators as it passed from Westwood to Kaymer, back to Westwood and then in May to Luke Donald. Donald became the first ever golfer to climb to number one before having won or finished runner-up in a major championship in his career, although he did replace Westwood as number one by defeating him in a playoff for the BMW PGA Championship, the first time it had changed hands in so dramatic a fashion. Donald's consistency through the rest of the 2011 season—becoming the first golfer ever to win the money title on both the European and PGA Tours in the same season—would keep him in the number one position, despite not gaining his maiden major victory.

In March 2012, Donald lost the number one position to Rory McIlroy; the pair then exchanged the number one position a further four times in the following two months, so the volatility of the number one ranking again became a source of comment.