Why The ‘Best Golfer’ Is Difficult To Measure

Dustin Johnson has led the World Rankings for 50-weeks–a salty streak given the deep talent currently on the PGA Tour. Of course, it pales in comparison to Tiger Woods’ 281 straight weeks as Numero Uno.

As the Morning Read’s Gary Van Sickle writes, its tougher to truly figure out week-to-week who is truly the world’s best player.

Clearly, it has become a multiple-choice question because we’re blessed with such an abundance of talent at golf’s highest level, maybe the most quality in numbers we’ve seen since the late 1970s and early ’80s. Remember the 1981 U.S. Ryder Cup team that was heavy with future World Golf Hall of Famers such as Ben Crenshaw, Raymond Floyd, Hale Irwin, Tom Kite, Johnny Miller, Larry Nelson, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and Tom Watson? Yeah, not bad.

Although we haven’t seen dominance of late, we have seen excellence. As a result, the No. 1 spot changed hands 12 times since Woods last held it in May of 2014 and, for a while, turned into an entertaining game of musical chairs among Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day.

How much does being No. 1 mean? A lot if you’ve never done it. Not so much, perhaps, once it has been achieved. Phil Mickelson, for instance, never won the money title and never got to No. 1—thank you very little, Tiger.

“It’s absolutely a huge, huge goal of mine to try to keep the No. 1 position in the world for as long as I can,” said Justin Thomas, the PGA Championship winner, who is ranked No. 4. “Obviously, I need to get there first. It’s a huge goal, but there are so many guys who could be No. 1 by the end of the year.”

Spieth has been there and done that on four occasions, the longest stretch being 20 weeks.

“It’s not even on the radar for me anymore,” Spieth, who stands No. 3 in the OWGR, behind Jon Rahm, said here at TPC Scottsdale. “It was something I wanted to do. My view on it now is probably different from guys who are searching to get there. I honestly think guys would take more pride in it if they had dethroned Tiger back in the day to get to No. 1. If I took No. 1 from Tiger in 2000 or whenever, that would have been something I might say 50 years from now. For me, it was [dethroning] Rory, which was really special in itself.”