The following is a list of golfers who have been top of the Official World Golf Ranking (originally known as the Sony Ranking), since the rankings started on April 6, 1986. As of February 23, 2025, Scottie Scheffler is the number one ranked golfer.
Contents
- Number one ranked men
- Weeks at number one
- Weeks at number one by country
- Earlier number ones
- See also
- Notes
- References
- External links
The rankings are calculated each week based on finishing positions in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolling" two-year period with a maximum of 52 tournaments and a minimum divisor of 40 events. During 2018, nearly 400 tournaments on 20 tours were covered by the ranking system. All players competing in these tournaments are included in the rankings. In 2023, 24 tours factored into the world rankings.
A total of 25 different golfers from ten countries spanning four continents have been ranked world number one. Five countries; the United States, England, Australia, Spain and Germany have had multiple world number ones. The United States has had nine golfers ranked number one, the most of any country.
Tiger Woods has spent the most consecutive weeks (281) and most total weeks (683) at the top of the rankings, and Tom Lehman the fewest total weeks, having spent just a single week at the top in April 1997. Four golfers have spent one or more entire calendar years atop the rankings: Nick Faldo (1993), Greg Norman (1996), Woods (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009), and Scheffler (2024). Lee Westwood and Luke Donald are the only world number one golfers to have not won a major championship.
