Dustin Johnson becomes fifth player to hold world No. 1 ranking in 2020

The revolving door atop the Official World Golf Rankings kept spinning after Dustin Johnson’s runaway victory at The Northern Trust.

Johnson left an elite field in his wake, winning by 11 shots at TPC Boston for his second victory of the summer. He jumped from No. 4 to No. 1 in the process, becoming the fifth different player this year to hold the No. 1 ranking and returning to the top spot for the first time since May 2019.

Brooks Koepka started the year ranked No. 1, but he was overtaken by Rory McIlroy in February. McIlroy held the No. 1 ranking through the Tour’s COVID-19 hiatus but lost it to Jon Rahm after Rahm’s victory at the Memorial. Justin Thomas took over the top spot a few weeks later with his win at Memphis before handing it back to Rahm, and now it’s Johnson’s turn.

Rahm dropped to world No. 2 despite a respectable T-6 finish in Boston, with Thomas, McIlroy and Collin Morikawa rounding out the latest top 5. Webb Simpson remained at No. 6, followed by Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and Xander Schauffele.

After his third-place finish in Boston, Daniel Berger jumped five spots to No. 13 and remains the highest-ranked player who won’t be eligible for the Masters in November. Harris English went from No. 113 to No. 53 with his runner-up finish behind Johnson, while Alex Noren moved up 29 spots to No. 87 with a T-8 result.

After finishing T-58 at the playoff opener, Tiger Woods fell one spot to No. 17 in the latest rankings. Woods started the year ranked No. 6 and is now at his lowest point in the standings since his win at the 2018 Tour Championship, when he went from 21st to 13th.