World Golf Rankings
By Kurt BoyerUpdated: March 12, 2024
Top 10 Official World Golf Rankings as of March 2024
Scottie Scheffler (#1) (PGA Tour)
Rory McIlroy (#2) (PGA Tour)
Jon Rahm (#3) (LIV Golf)
Viktor Hovland (#4) (PGA Tour)
Wyndham Clark (#5) (PGA Tour)
Xander Schauffele (#6) (PGA Tour)
Patrick Cantlay (#7) (PGA Tour)
Max Homa (#8) (PGA Tour)
Brian Harman (#9) (PGA Tour)
Ludvig Aberg (#10) (PGA Tour)
World Golf Rankings: Big Changes in Midst of the 2020s
It used to be simple for PGA Tour fans to follow the World Golf Rankings. Players were rated on their tournament wins, top 10 finishes, and scoring averages, not just on the PGA Tour but against reasonably strong fields around the world, with the PGA's top events and major championships weighted most highly of all. Tiger Woods reigned at #1 in the World Golf Rankings for a record 281 consecutive weeks, still the stuff of legend decades later.
The WGR system has always taken its share of criticism. Players have been said to keep their favorable rankings too long after a slump ensues, such as when an injured, laboring Woods reigned over the WGR later in his career against far more active golfers. Sportsbook users have lauded the World Golf Rankings for the same reason that major tournament officials have knocked it, since a wager on Tiger Woods to win an exhibition round in contemporary times can pay off just as well as a bet on Jon Rahm to win an Open.
Those debates were nothing compared to golf's firestorm of 2022 and 2023. The introduction of LIV Golf, a Big Oil-funded alternative pro tour led by retired rebel Greg Norman, gave WGR analysts a whole lot of complications to consider. The World Golf Rankings committee has slow-walked LIV Golf's requests for WGR points given to its winners, causing Brooks Koepka and others who fled to the new tour to plunge down the rankings. Scottie Scheffler reigned as WGR #1 over Koepka even as the latter linksman added to his impressive major tournament trophy case in 2023, while the PGA's finest iron shark failed to win any Grand Slam events. Rory McIlroy's "major" losing streak did not prevent the popular Irishman from ascending the WGR against a weakened field of PGA loyalists in the mid-2020s.
The WGR's new glaring flaw should be expected to work itself out as the decade goes on. PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and LIV Golf commissioners made the surprising decision to merge the 3 tours late in the summer of 2023, which should make it possible for the best competitors in the game to begin playing against each other regularly again. Look for rankings of all kinds to begin retroactively (and currently) counting points from wins produced by Koepka or Dustin Johnson on the LIV Golf and DP World Tour circuits. FanDuel's PGA power rankings have already integrated all 3 and the Grand Slam.
WGR History: Dominating Players and Important Trends
Most fans cheer for the underdogs, but PGA Tour fans want to see top golfers winning at the biggest events. If Tiger is said to have “saved” golf in the late 1990s, it’s not unlike how another American icon once revived a royal sport.
1960s: Arnold Palmer
Arnold Palmer’s tournament success in the 1960s captivated his audience with an appealing style that contrasted with his contemporaries’ cautious swings. Soon, a whole new breed of long-hitting champions, including Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson, would arrive on the scene. Finesse golf remained well-represented by titans like Lee Trevino and Gary Player. Each player trademarked their own tactics, and the marquee power-player and finesse-golfer mantles would be taken up by Greg Norman and Seve Ballesteros, respectively, in the 1980s.
Then came the 1990s, and another period of low points matches with methodical golfers and generic golf shots. Notable 1980s players, like Tom Kite, Curtis Strange, and Bernhard Langer had their moments in the limelight, but tournament fields were deeper than ever. At times, golf ranking in tournaments from the 90s resembled an automated video game's “leaderboards”—predictable long-haul results scrambled by a weekly algorithmic randomizer.
1990s: Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods was lurking, and upon going pro, Tiger combined Palmer’s daring with Nicklaus’s long-game and Watson’s incredible points-focused par-saves around the green. The result was a competitive record like golf had never seen before. Tiger whipped the 1997 U.S. Masters field by such a total points margin that Augusta National was adjusted for length prior to his next visit. In the year 2000, Woods would become the first ranking golfer of modern times to receive minus-futures odds from bookmakers before major tournaments began on Thursdays.
Following Woods’s record-crushing 15-stroke win at the 2000 U.S. Open, Sports Illustrated mused, “…when, not if, Tiger wins the British Open this year.” Sure enough, Woods flew to St. Andrews and routed the international field by eight points.
When injury and scandal knocked Tiger off the Official World Golf Ranking #1 pedestal, pundits worried that golf could lose its newfound popularity. Would the world golf rankings devolve into the mediocrity of the 1990s once again?
2010s: Rory McIlroy
Not for long. Official world golf rankings of the 2010s were controlled by elite superstars. Rory McIlroy’s 2013 PGA Championship win at Kiawah Island defined a new era that turned Tiger’s risky tee shots into a science. Jordan Spieth was a candidate for player-of-the-decade until losing at Amen Corner on a Sunday in 2016.
Can There Be a True WGR King in the 2020s?
Suppose no PGA Tour player grows to dominate major tournaments quite like Brooks Koepka or Jon Rahm, LIV Golf and DP World Tour adventurers who temporarily left the PGA Tour behind in 2022-23, by the middle of the decade. If politics continues to dictate official WGR decision-making, leaving both Koepka and Rahm's World Golf Rankings to continue to suffer in spite of numerous wins on the links, then how can FanDuel golf gamers utilize the OWGR (Official World Golf Ranking) wisely in years to come?
Site users must learn to use WGR charts much like Top 25 rankings in college sports, with an eye toward the official ranking disadvantages faced by certain picks vying to pay off wagers at the sportsbook, or Fantasy draft picks on FanDuel's main gaming site.
Suppose that you're betting on Kansas to win the Big 12 postseason tourney in a given year, and the KU Jayhawks are only getting a few Top 25 votes. That makes Kansas a likely underdog against powerful Top 25 teams in its conference. But if Bethune-Cookman produces a Top 25 season, it's playing great hoops relative to league opponents.
In a similar fashion, try to treat LIV Golf sharks with their giant OWGR handicap in mind, looking to find any player who's cracked golf's "Top 25" with the benefit of only a tiny number of starts in big tournaments that count for WGR points. Those are the golfers who've overcome politics, so to speak, to make waves on even PGA-oriented rankings. If, on the other hand, a player is leading the OWGR thanks to playing in more PGA Tour events than others do, take those rankings with a grain of salt. Even before the world's best professional golfers split into a pair of competing tours, then tried clumsily to organize a joint-league effort for 2024, top players were paring back their PGA appearances and focusing on major tournament victories more often from COVID-19 onward.
The Competitive Strength of European Tour Golfers
America’s major sports leagues fancy themselves the “majors” of the world, with every other brand informally tagged as a “minor” league. However, the PGA Tour's field of players does not suffer any such illusions. Ask any top-20 professional golfer in the United States, and he’ll confess to having been roundly whipped by European Tour pros at some point.
It’s true that the European Tour features fewer true household golf names. Rory McIlroy and Francisco Molinari are just 2 overseas players who began making the transition to full-time PGA Tour status once having success in major championships.
Tiger Woods is responsible for much of the PGA Tour’s success in drawing top world golf ranking players. Following Tiger’s epic reign of dominance in the 2000s, international players flocked to qualify for the PGA Tour and follow Woods in pursuit of rising cash purses, making a name for themselves as part of the Official World Golf Rankings.
But even when European Tour players produce flaky records in North America, tracking their habits can still be of value to fantasy golf GMs and gamblers on the Grand Slam.
Jumbo Ozaki was a Japanese professional who, back in the 1990s, tended to reach -3 points under par on Thursdays at the U.S. Open and PGA Championship, then shoot 75s and 78s in the final 3 rounds. TV commentators boasted that Jumbo had won over 100 tournaments “worldwide” even though nearly 90 percent of his championship wins had occurred on the lightweight Japan Golf Tour of that era. As John Feinstein wryly noted, “Jumbo Ozaki has in fact won over 80 of said titles in Japan, and Japan is most certainly in the world.”
Fantasy golfers were never upset with “Big Jumbo,” though. Neither were wiseguys who had only bet on Ozaki to flourish in the 1st round. FanDuel Sportsbook offers betting markets on non-PGA Tour players competing in golf’s majors, including Top European, Top Amateur, and the annual “Top Club Pro” finish at the PGA Championship, hosted not by the PGA Tour but a separate “PGA” organization of country club professionals.
FanDuel Golf Gaming and World Golf Ranking FAQ
How Has LIV Golf Affected WGR Statuses?
Due to the Official World Golf Ranking steadfastly refusing to count LIV Golf victories as valid WGR points, players like Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson plunged down the rankings soon after joining LIV Golf in the early 2020s. Due to a merger that would materialize the following year, golf analysts hope to have a WGR metric that won't accidentally omit the top threats to win tournaments from the chart's top 20, but manufacturing a fair point system for PGA-thin schedules will be a long effort.
How Do PGA Tour Futures Odds Differ From Other Sports?
Bettors must wait far less time on average for PGA Tour futures bets to pay off, since wagers placed on Wednesday prior to a tournament will either win or lose only 5 days in the "future." Long-term championship futures odds are available on golf's major tournaments and the Ryder Cup, in addition to the PGA Tour's climactic FedEx Cup race in autumn.
Does the PGA Tour Host a Major Championship?
No. Golf's 4 major tournaments are hosted by the Masters Tournament committee at Augusta National Golf Club, the Royal & Ancient Club (British Open), the United States Golf Association (United States Open), and the Professional Golfers of America, also known as the "PGA" in "PGA Championship." Opinions differ as to which of the PGA Tour's annual events qualifies as the Tour's "Major" or most important tournament, with good arguments for The Players Championship, the Tour Championship, and Jack Nicklaus' spring championship in Ohio, The Memorial.
Can I Still Play DFS Golf Games During Majors?
Absolutely; in fact, FanDuel expects more golf traffic on major championship weekends than any other. Fantasy scoring does not change during major tournaments, and the calendar works in a similar fashion, with opening rounds on Thursday and Friday, a 36-hole cut, and a champion crowned after 72 holes or in a playoff.
Fantasy Golf strategy changes when birdies are scarce and eagles unlikely during an arduous major championship. Learn more with FanDuel's DFS golf tutorials.
Where Can I Find Golf Odds at FanDuel?
Clients can find odds on upcoming PGA Tour events by clicking "Golf" on the left-hand menu, then toggling the menu boxes between "PGA Tour," "The Majors," "Tournament Match-Ups," and other categories of gambling markets on North American links.
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