OWGR: Rahm returns to No. 1, Tiger back inside top 1000

Scottie Scheffler’s return to world No. 1 was, indeed, a short one.

Just a week after usurping Rory McIlroy from the top spot with a win at the WM Phoenix Open, Jon Rahm has done the same to Scheffler with his third win of 2023 – this time at the Genesis Invitational.

Safe to say, the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) hasn’t seen this much action at the top since 2015, when world No. 1 jumped from Jordan Spieth to Rory McIlroy to Jason Day in a span of three weeks. Before that, in 1997, the top spot was tossed around like a hot potato from Tiger Woods to Ernie Els to Greg Norman before being regained by Woods for a couple months.

A rare occurrence and one that won’t happen again for at least a little while. According to Twitter’s resident OWGR guru, Nosferatu, the top 13 in the world will remain unchanged this week due to the strength of field, or lack thereof, at the Honda Classic.

The biggest names set to take on PGA National this week are defending champion Sepp Straka, Sungjae Im, Billy Horschel, Shane Lowry and Webb Simpson. Depending on how they finish, Im, Horschel and Lowry could rise in the OWGR.

Not in the field this week are any of the world top 17, including No. 1 Rahm and now Nos. 2-3 Scheffler and McIlroy, respectively.

Notably, LIV Golf’s Cameron Smith continues to slowly drop down the world rankings after defecting for the rival league last year. He is now No. 5 after Patrick Cantlay moved up to No. 4.

One person not taking a tumble down the rankings this week was none other than Tiger Woods, who jumped from No. 1294 to No. 985 after finishing T-45 at Riviera Country Club last weekend.