The Official World Golf Ranking was introduced in 1986.
The ranking takes into account a golfer’s performance over a rolling two-year period. The ranking is updated each week.
Since its inception, there have been 21 different players who have earned the No. 1 spot in the world ranking. You can probably guess who holds the title for the most weeks in the top spot. Some of the other names on this list may surprise you.
Here is the complete list of golfers who reached No. 1 in OWGR history and how long each of them was ranked in the top spot.
Tom Lehman
1 week
Lehman spent an entire week in the No. 1 spot in the OWGR, doing so during the stretch from April 20-26, 1997. He is the only golfer to hold the top spot for just one week. Lehman also has one major to his credit, the 1996 Open Championship, which he claimed at Royal Lytham and St Annes Golf Club in the United Kingdom.
Bernhard Langer
3 weeks
Langer held the top spot for three weeks but his real distinction here is that he was the very first golfer to be ranked No. 1 when the OWGR launched in 1986. Langer was coming off a 1985 Masters victory, his first of two majors. He would win again at Augusta National in 1993.
Justin Thomas
4 weeks
Thomas won his first major at the 2017 PGA Championship and less than a year later, he ascended to the top spot in the OWGR after the 2018 Players Championship. He held the No. 1 ranking for four consecutive weeks before giving way to Dustin Johnson.
Martin Kaymer
8 weeks
Kaymer rose to prominence in 2010 when he won the PGA Championship, the first of his two majors. He became the No. 1-ranked golfer in the world in 2011, overtaking Lee Westwood, and he held the top spot for eight weeks. In 2014, he won his second major at the U.S. Open.
Ernie Els
9 weeks
Els reached the pinnacle of the OWGR in 1997 soon after winning the U.S. Open. It was his second U.S Open crown. He has 71 professional wins, 19 on the PGA Tour and spent nine weeks atop the OWGR.
Adam Scott
11 weeks
Scott was No. 1 during the summer of 2014 for 11 weeks. He has won his only major, the Masters, about 14 months before that. In March of 2014, he shot a 62 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. A week after becoming the second Australian golfer to be ranked No. 1, Scott won at Colonial, confirming his newfound status, a spot he would hold just about three months.
Justin Rose
13 weeks
Rose posted the best cumulative score at all of the four majors in 2018, including a second place finish at the Open Championship. Those performances vaulted him to No. 1 in the OWGR. Rose would also win the FedEx Cup championship that year.
David Duval
15 weeks
Duval, a Jacksonville, Florida, native, won 13 times on the PGA Tour 1997 and 2001. His lone major came in the 2001 Open Championship. Injuries curtailed his career.
Fred Couples
16 weeks
Couples first gained No. 1 status in March 1992 for a week – then lost it – before winning the Masters. He also won the Players Championship in 1984 and 1996 and 62 other professional events. Couples entered the Golf Hall of Fame in 2013.
Lee Westwood
22 weeks
An Englishman, Westwood has 42 pro wins, the bulk of which came on the European Tour. He was Player of the Year in 1998, 2000 and 2009. Westwood became No. 1 in 2009, ending the record 281-consecutive-week run of Tiger Woods.
Jordan Spieth
26 weeks
A three-time major champion, Spieth gained No. 1 status for the first time in August 2015 after finishing second to Jason Day in the PGA Championship. He won the FedEx Cup to conclude the 2015 season.
Vijay Singh
32 weeks
Fiji’s only world-class golfer, Singh notched 34 victories on the PGA Tour from 1993-2008 and has 62 professional victories overall. He won three majors, including the PGA Championship twice, and was the leading PGA Tour money winner in 2003, 2004 and 2008. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2006.
Brooks Koepka
38 weeks
Koepka ascended to the top spot after winning the 2019 PGA Championship at Bethpage Black. It was his second PGA title and fourth major overall. Koepka was bumped out of the No. 1 slot by Rory McIlroy, who last held the top spot in 2015. Koepka won twice during the eight-month stretch he was ranked No. 1.
Nick Price
44 weeks
Born in South Africa and raised in what is now Zimbabwe, Price won 16 of the 54 tournaments he played in worldwide from 1992-94. During that time, he was PGA Tour Player of the Year and the Tour’s top money winner twice.
Ian Woosnam
50 weeks
The 1991 Masters champion, Woosnam has 51 professional victories worldwide and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2017. A 5-foot-4 Welshman, Woosnam has played in the Masters 30 times.
Jason Day
51 weeks
Day became the No. 1 golfer in the world for the first time in September 2015. He has 12 PGA Tour victories and has finished second 10 times. His lone major title came in the 2015 PGA Championship.
Luke Donald
56 weeks
Donald finished the 2011 season with the No. 1 ranking. Much of his success came on the European Tour. He became No. 1 in May 2011 after defeating Lee Westwood in a playoff to win the BMW PGA Championship.
Seve Ballesteros
61 weeks
Ballesteros won five majors, including the Masters twice (1980, 1983) and the Open Championship three times (1979, 1984, 1988). His success and flair endeared him to fans in both his native Spain, across Europe and in the U.S. Ballesteros, 54, died in 2011 after battling a brain tumor.
Dustin Johnson
91 weeks
Johnson has had five different stops at No. 1, including a stretch from February 2017 to June 2018. He recaptured the top spot four weeks later and held it for 13 more weeks. The last time he held the No. 1 spot was May 2019.
Nick Faldo
97 weeks
Faldo was just the fourth player to ever earn the No. 1 ranking, doing it for the first time in 1990. After finishing No. 2 in the world for three straight years, Faldo took the No. 1 spot for the third time in July 1992 and held it until February of 1994. He won three Open Championships and three Masters titles.
Rory McIlroy
98 weeks
The current World No. 1, McIlroy reclaimed the top spot after the Farmers Insurance Open in 2020. He was last ranked No. 1 in 2015. The 1,605 days between stints at No. 1 is the longest in the world ranking’s history. McIlroy overtook Brooks Koepka, who held the top spot for 38 weeks. McIlroy has won four majors before his 26th birthday — the 2011 U.S Open, the PGA Championship (2012 and 2014) and the 2014 Open Championship.
Greg Norman
331 weeks
Norman became just the third player, after Bernhard Langer and Seve Ballesteros, to be ranked No. 1 in the world when he earned that distinction on Sept. 14, 1986. Nearly 32 years later, he appeared in the 2018 ESPN Body Issue. Norman won 91 times overall, including 20 times on the PGA Tour. He also won the Open Championship in 1986 and 1993.
Tiger Woods
683 weeks
There is a limit to the superlatives left to describe Woods’ golf career. He first rose to the top of the Official World Golf Rankings for one week in June 1997. He would appear five more times at No. 1 from 1997-1999 before beginning a 264-week run atop the rankings. The 10th time he was ranked No. 1 in the world, he would hold that spot for a record 281-consecutive weeks. He finally yielded the top spot to Lee Westwood in October 2010.
