Rory McIlroy has returned to the summit of the Official World Golf Ranking as a just reward for an extended period of consistency.
Year in review: Decade belongs to McIlroy
The Northern Irishman’s stellar 2019 and the complicated co-efficient system used to determine the seedings of the planet’s top players has had him overtake Brooks Koepka.
Koepka’s stay at the top lasted 38 weeks which started after he claimed the 2019 PGA Championship at Bethpage Black in May.
It is McIlroy’s eighth stint as the No 1-ranked player but the first time since September 2015. He starts this week at the Genesis Open on the back of four top-five or better results in as many events including victory at the WGC-HSBC Champions.
Koepka joins McIlroy in the field at Riviera that also has No 3 Jon Rahm, No 4 Justin Thomas, No 5 Dustin Johnson, No 6 Woods, No 8 Patrick Cantlay, No 9 Xander Schauffele and No 10 Justin Rose in the mix.
Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Sergio Garcia, Matt Kuchar and Hideki Matsuyama are also among those committed.
