With his win at the Genesis Open on Sunday, Dustin Johnson rose to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings for the first time in his career. Johnson is the 20th golfer to be ranked No. 1 since the OWGR started back in 1986. He overtakes Jason Day who had held the spot for 47 consecutive weeks and 51 overall.
Johnson has a long way to go to catch the all-time leader in weeks at No. 1. Tiger Woods was ranked No. 1 in the OWGR for 683 total weeks including runs of 264 weeks and 281 weeks consecutively in the early and mid-2000s.
Greg Norman is No. 2 on the all-time list at 331 weeks. There have only been 10 golfers who have occupied the No. 1 spot since 2000. I listed them in order of first appearance. Woods has dwarfed pretty much everyone else on this list.
Golfer | First Time | Total Weeks |
---|---|---|
Dustin Johnson | February 20, 2017 | 1 |
Jason Day | September 20, 2015 | 51 |
Jordan Spieth | August 20, 2015 | 26 |
Adam Scott | May 18, 2014 | 11 |
Rory McIlroy | March 4, 2012 | 95 |
Luke Donald | May 29, 2011 | 56 |
Martin Kaymer | February 27, 2011 | 8 |
Lee Westwood | October 31, 2010 | 22 |
Vijay Singh | September 5, 2004 | 26 |
Tiger Woods | June 15, 1997 | 683 |
Johnson has earned the spot, though. After winning three times last season including his first major championship, he has finished in the top 10 in two of three tournaments this year before getting the win this week. He previously had five top-five finishes at this tournament without a win.
Day, who has held the top spot for nearly a year now and is No. 7 on the all-time list in weeks at No. 1, had some advice for the newly-minted No. 1 player.
“I think he’s going to do just fine,” said now-former No. 1 Day. “He’s won every single year that he’s been out here. That’s a formula. Whatever he’s doing he just needs to keep doing. If he keeps playing the way he’s been playing, we have to all pick our games up to try and compete against him. He’s playing some really good golf.”
Current world No. 1 on the soon-to-be new No. 1 pic.twitter.com/HzXXrn062s
— Mike McAllister (@PGATOUR_mikemc) February 19, 2017