Justin Rose is the latest player to join rarefied air. With a runner-up Monday at the BMW Championship, he became just the 22nd player to ascend to the top spot in the World Golf Ranking.
The ranking began in April, 1986, and Bernhard Langer had the honor of being the first player ever to be ranked No. 1, a title he held for three weeks.
Since then, 21 other players have laid claim to the top spot. Here’s the full list, with career weeks at No. 1 in parenthesis:
Seve Ballesteros (61)
Greg Norman (331)
Nick Faldo (97)
Ian Woosnam (50)
Fred Couples (16)
Nick Price (44)
Tom Lehman (1)
Ernie Els (9)
Tiger Woods (683)
David Duval (15)
Vijay Singh (32)
Martin Kaymer (8)
Lee Westwood (22)
Luke Donald (56)
Rory McIlroy (95)
Adam Scott (11)
Jordan Spieth (26)
Jason Day (51)
Dustin Johnson (77)
Justin Thomas (4)
Justin Rose (1)
Tiger Woods is credited with not only the longest streak of No. 1-ranked weeks in a row (281, from 2005-2010) but also with the highest total tally of weeks at No. 1, with 683. Greg Norman is second, with 331 total weeks.
Rose replaced Dustin Johnson, whose most recent reign at the top lasted 13 weeks. DJ’s 77 weeks at the top ranks fifth on the all-time list. As for the women, Lorena Ochoa is the name to beat. The Rolex Rankings were conceived in 2006, so they didn’t entirely capture the dominance of Annika Sorenstam. Nonetheless, the Swede spent plenty of weeks in the top spot.
Lorena Ochoa (158)
Yani Tseng (109)
Inbee Park (106)
Lydia Ko (104)
Annika Sorenstam (60)
Jiyai Shin (25)
Stacy Lewis (25)
ShanShan Feng (23)
Ryu So-yeon (19)
Ai Miyazato (11)
Christie Kerr (5)
Ariya Jutanugarn (5)
Park Sung-hyun (5)