McIlroy returns to world No. 1 since 2015
Rory McIlroy has supplanted Brooks Koepka atop the Official World Golf Ranking, and he did so without hitting a shot.
Both McIlroy and Koepka were idle last week, but because of slight changes to their respective OWGR calculations it’s now McIlroy on top with a 9.19-point average against Koepka’s new average of 9.16.
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This marks the first time McIlroy has held the top spot since September 2015, and his 53-month gap sets a new record for longest time between a player losing and regaining the No. 1 ranking.
Koepka had held the No. 1 spot since winning the PGA Championship in May, but he’s now down to No. 2 followed by Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson.
Patrick Cantlay’s T-11 finish at Pebble Beach bumped him up two spots to world No. 6, with Webb Simpson now seventh and Tiger Woods down two spots to No. 8. Xander Schauffele and Justin Rose round out the latest top 10.
Pebble Beach winner Nick Taylor made the week’s biggest jump, going from 229th to 101st with his second career PGA Tour win. Runner-up Kevin Streelman moved up 48 spots to No. 85, while Phil Mickelson went from 72nd to 55th after finishing third.
The top 50 in this week’s rankings all qualify for next week’s WGC-Mexico Championship, and Jordan Spieth snuck in just in time. Spieth’s chip-in par save on his 72nd hole preserved a T-9 finish, one that helped him go from 55th to 49th and qualify for Mexico City. At No. 55, Mickelson is on the outside looking in and would need to crack the top 50 after the Genesis Invitational in order to qualify for an event he won just two years ago.
Other notables who barely missed the first of two top-50 cutoffs for the year’s first WGC event include Ian Poulter (No. 51), Collin Morikawa (No. 53) and Scottie Scheffler (No. 54).
