A Quarter Century of World No. 1 Golfers

THE OFFICIAL WORLD GOLF RANKING (OWGR) debuted in 1986. Masters champion Bernhard Langer was the first world No. 1. Langer’s reign only lasted three weeks. Seve Ballesteros, who died three weeks ago, grabbed the top spot and held on to it for more than a year. Then Greg Norman was king of the hill for much of the 1990s.

Luke Donald will now take a turn at the top, thanks to his dramatic playoff win over former No. 1 Lee Westwood at the BMW PGA Championship. Donald is the 15th player to claim the No. 1 ranking.

Here are all 15, including the number of weeks they were on top:

Bernhard Langer, 3 weeks
Seve Ballesteros, 61 weeks
Greg Norman, 331 weeks
Nick Faldo, 97 weeks
Ian Woosnam, 50 weeks
Fred Couples, 16 weeks
Nick Price, 44 weeks
Tom Lehman, 1 week
Tiger Woods, 623 weeks
Ernie Els, 9 weeks
David Duval, 15 weeks
Vijay Singh, 32 weeks
Lee Westwood, 17 weeks
Martin Kaymer, 8 weeks
Luke Donald, took over yesterday (May 30, 2011)

Since the decline of Tiger Woods, it has been Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Lee Westwood and now Luke Donald. How long will Donald be No. 1 and who will displace him?

It might be Westwood again, especially if he can finally get the “major” monkey off his back. Of course, The Donald would also like to win his first major.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Source: Golf.com)

(Photo credit: Keith Allison, Flickr, Creative Commons license)