Jon Rahm exits the world ranking podium

American Scottie Scheffler asserted his dominance as the world number one by confidently winning his second Masters at Augusta, while Spanish golfer Jon Rahm, who finished 45th, dropped to fourth place in the global rankings.

Jon Rahm, results

Scheffler solidified his absolute leadership, topping the list with an average of 13.99 points, increasingly distancing himself from Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy (7.65), who sits in twenty-second place after the first Grand Slam tournament of the season.

Also, American Xander Schauffele, who finished eighth at the Masters, is the player who, with 6.34 points, knocks Rahm (6.31) off the podium, marking the first time Rahm hasn’t been in the top three since January 2023, and also displaces his compatriot Wyndham Clark (6.13).

Norwegian Viktor Hovland remains in sixth place just ahead of the young Swedish sensation Ludvig Aberg, who finished a spectacular second at the Masters and surpasses another former world number one, Patrick Cantlay.

World Golf Rankings

Scottie SCHEFFLER – 13.99 points/average
Rory McILROY – 7.65 points/average
Xander SCHAUFFELE – 6.34 points/average
JON RAHM – 6.31 points/average
Wymdham CLARK – 6.13 points/average
Viktor HOVLAND – 5.61 points/average
Ludvig ABERG – 5.60 points/average
Patrick CANTLAY – 4.61 points/average
Max HOMA – 4.43 points/average
Brian HARMAN – 4.22 points/average

The impetus for the creation of the Official World Golf Rankings came from the tournament committee of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, which in the 1980s realized that its system of sending invitations for participation in the British Open by analyzing each tour individually was increasingly excluding high-level players. This was because many players were splitting their commitments across multiple tours. Another driving force was the influential sports manager Mark McCormack, who became the first chairman of the international committee overseeing the ranking’s creation. The system used to develop the rankings was based on McCormack’s World Golf Rankings, previously published in his World of Professional Golf Annual from 1968 to 1985. Although unofficial, McCormack’s rankings weren’t used for other purposes like selecting players for tournaments.

The first rankings were published before the 1986 edition of The Masters. The top six players were Bernhard Langer, Severiano Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle, Tom Watson, Mark O’Meara, and Greg Norman. While the top three were European players, thirty-one of the top fifty were American.

Over the years, the method of calculating the rankings has undergone significant changes. Initially, the rankings were calculated over a three-year period, with the current year’s points multiplied by four, the previous year’s points by two, and the points from two years prior left unchanged. The rankings were compiled with the total score and overall points rounded to the nearest whole number. All tournaments recognized by professional tours and some invitationals were classified into categories, ranging from “major tournaments” (where the winner received 50 points) to “other tournaments” (where the winner received a minimum of 8 points). In each tournament, other finishers also received points proportionally based on their placement, starting from the runner-up who received 60% of the points awarded to the winner.