The following is a list of golfers who have been top of the Official World Golf Ranking. As of August 9, 2020, Jon Rahm is the number one ranked golfer. Tiger Woods has spent the most consecutive weeks (281) and most total weeks (683) in that position. The shortest time goes to Tom Lehman, who spent only one week at the top in April 1997. Three golfers have spent an entire calendar year atop the rankings: Nick Faldo (1993), Greg Norman (1996), and Woods (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009).
Number one ranked men
Note 1: In the first column, each number signifies the first time that golfer was ranked number one.
Note 2: In the "Cumulative total" column, each boldface number signifies total weeks as of the most recent time that golfer was ranked number one.
Order – indicates the sequence in which the players first reached number 1. Majors – number of major championships each player has won throughout his golfing career.
Weeks at number one by country
*
Country with the current number one player as of August 9, 2020
Order – indicates the sequence in which the country first had a number 1 player. Majors – number of major championships the country's world-ranked number 1 players have won throughout their golfing careers. Players – number of players from that country who have been world-ranked number 1. Top player – the player from that country who has spent most weeks as the world-ranked number 1 player. First player – the player from that country who was first to be world-ranked number 1 player, left blank if that country has only one such player. Latest player – the player from that country who was most recently world-ranked number 1 player, left blank if that country has only one such player. Zone – The zone to which that country now belongs for Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup purposes:
EUR = Europe (plays in Ryder Cup)
IT = International Team (plays in Presidents Cup)
USA = United States of America (plays in both cups)
Weeks – the total number of weeks players from the zone have been world-ranked number 1, including any weeks Australia's Greg Norman was world-ranked number 1 before the Presidents Cup and its International Team zone were first created. It was first played in September 1994, shortly after the August 1994 end of Greg Norman's first 7 periods (starting in September 1986) and 209 weeks at Number 1 (out of his total of 11 periods and 331 weeks). Order – indicates the sequence in which the zone first had a number 1 player. Majors – number of major championships the zone's world-ranked number 1 players have won throughout their golfing careers. Players – number of players from that zone who have been world-ranked number 1. Top player – the player from that zone who has spent most weeks as the world-ranked number 1 player. First player – the player from that zone who was first to be world-ranked number 1 player. Latest player – the player from that zone who was most recently world-ranked number 1 player.
Earlier number ones
Before the start of the Official World Golf Ranking in 1986, unofficial world golf rankings were published in Mark McCormack's World of Professional Golf Annual from 1968 to 1985. These annual world golf rankings gave Jack Nicklaus as the number one from 1968 to 1977, Tom Watson from 1978 to 1982 and Seve Ballesteros from 1983 to 1985.
^ abcdeThe rankings were frozen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rankings were produced on 15 March 2020 and restarted on 14 June 2020. No rankings were produced for the 12 weeks between these dates and so Rory McIlroy's total weeks at number one do not include these 12 weeks.