Rory McIlroy stays at World No. 2, Graeme McDowell has taken a 61-points leap while long-time World No. 1, Tiger Woods has reached an all time low ranking though Brian O’Donovan now has his first Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) in five years.
There will be little comfort for McDowell, even with the rise as he’s the new World No. 602nd ranked player following his share of 12th in Sunday’s concluding Hong Kong Open.
The premier Asian Tour event was only the LIV golfer’s sixth OWGR counting event this year and his new ranking is a far cry from McDowell’s OWGR career high of 4th following a share of third in the 2011 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
Bandon’s Brian O’Donovan is the new World No. 2874 after the recently-appointed teaching professional at the Hong Kong club made the cut in his first OWGR counting event since 2018 when a member of the PGA China Tour. He ended that year as World No. 1944 but teed-up last Thursday, thanks to a tournament invitation, with no ranking whatsoever.
O’Donovan may have finished tail of the field in Hong Kong but he was well-supported for the four rounds by many club members, who were out in force watching the Irishman compete and it will be back to their day jobs this week for O’Donovan and fellow club pro, Danny Harrison who caddied for him.
Rory McIlroy tees-up this week assured of a fifth DP World Tour No. 1 title by virtue of no player in this week’s 50-only field, including nearest rival and defending champion Jon Rahm, being in a position to get past him on the Race to Dubai points table.
The next best Irishman on the rankings is Shane Lowry who remains at World No. 35 and the still ‘out injured’ Seamus Power has slipped two places to World No. 71, with his nagging hip injury that hasn’t seen him compete since August’s BMW Championship, spoiling hopes of an end-of-season automatic entry into next April’s Masters.
Tom McKibbin will be making his debut in this week’s DP World Tour Championship at World No. 170, dropping four spots following his share of 33rd in last week’s Nedbank Challenge. McKibbin is returning to the UAE for a first time since his mid-field finish in the February’s Ras Al Khaimah Championship and then ranked World No. 308.
The reigning Porsche European Open champion’s highest OWGR remains 157th following his share of 39th in September’s Horizon Irish Open.
In other OWGR news, 82-time PGA Tour winning Tiger Woods has fallen to his lowest ever ranking, now placed 1,307th in the world following the latest update.
Woods’ previous low was 1,294th which he reached in February, before making a long-awaited return to competition when playing at the Genesis Invitational that same month, his first event since the 150th Open at St Andrews eight months earlier. Less than two months later Woods returned to action again, this time at the Masters.
Woods spent the most consecutive weeks (281) and the most total weeks (683) atop of the men’s pro rankings,
In better news Colombian Camilo Villegas has jumped 155 places to be the new World No. 163rd ranked player after his emotional Butterfield Bermuda Championship win.
It had been nine-years and four months since he last won on the PGA Tour and moved to World No. 112 following his Wyndham Championship triumph.
The biggest mover this week on the OWGR is South African Travis Ladner, picking-up 886 spots to be the new World No. 2312 after his Big Easy Tour success.
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