World Golf Rankings: Breaking down this week’s top 15

Hideki Matsuyama has struggled as of late, which is in relation to the injuries he has dealt with recently with his back. Matsuyama won The Genesis Invitational in February fueled by a final round 62 at Riviera to get back into the top 20 and a couple top 10s got him back inside the top 15. However, he withdrew from the Wells Fargo Championship before placing 35^th at the PGA Championship in his only event since the Masters.

The veteran Keegan Bradley remains at No. 14 this week following a runner-up finish at the Charles Schwab Challenge a couple weeks ago when moved up six spots from No. 20. Bradley, who revived his career with two wins last season at the 2022 ZOZO Championship in the fall and the 2023 Travelers Championship for his first victories in at least four years, has continued to show that he still has it as he has a second runner-up finish losing in a playoff to Grayson Murray at the Sony Open in January.

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Coming in at No. 13 is Sahith Theegala, who has a couple of runner-up finishes to his name this season, despite a missed cut in his most recent start at the RBC Canadian Open. Like Viktor Hovland, Theegala was a name to watch as the PGA Championship progressed as everyone looked up at Xander Schauffele, before falling and finished tied for 12^th in his first opportunity to contend at a major. What has helped Theegala is his statistics from the tee, the approach and on the green, which are near the top of his career.  

The third consecutive one spot change this week comes from Tommy Fleetwood rising to No. 12 in the most-recent World Golf Rankings. Although Fleetwood has yet to win on the PGA Tour in six years, he has five runners-up and 23 top five finishes, compared to eight international victories. This season, Fleetwood has three top 10s, including back-to-back top-10 finishes at the Valero Texas Open and the Masters in April.  

Brian Harman is currently No. 11 in this week’s World Golf Rankings and drops one spot. Since his runner-up finish at the Players Championship, along with Clark and Schauffele to Scheffler, the reigning Open Champion has not been in contention, as a T12 at the RBC Heritage is his best finish in the last seven starts.   

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Max Homa moved up one spot to No. 10 this week following a missed cut at the Charles Schwab Challenge. That is where the logistics of the World Golf Rankings come into play. They do not necessarily rank on performance from week to week, but rank on success over a long period of time, 40 tournaments at minimum. Despite a T35 at the Masters, Homa recorded his best finish at a major with a T3 at the Masters in April.

Patrick Cantlay moves down one spot this week to No. 9. The UCLA alum has just one top-10 finish in his last six starts, which came at the RBC Heritage when he tied for third. It has not been the best for Cantlay so far this season. However, he enters the Memorial Tournament this week as a two-time winner as he looks to get in the groove the summer temperatures start to rise.

Collin Morikawa sits at No. 8 this week as it marks the first switch in this week’s rankings. Morikawa has back-to-back fourth place finishes at the PGA Championship and the Charles Schwab Challenge that has helped him get back into the top 10 of the World Golf Rankings since the 2023 Players Championship. He has been in the final pairing on Sunday at the first two majors but has not quite been able to hoist the trophy at the end of his fourth round at both the PGA Championship and the Masters.

Jon Rahm is one of the LIV Golf players who can only accumulate World Golf Rankings points at the four major tournaments as a result of the LIV Golf’s format not meeting the criteria to be awarded points. Rahm, who is the captain for Legion XIII, leads LIV Golf in birdies. However, in the first two majors of 2024, the 2023 Masters Champion has a T45 at Augusta in April and missed the cut during the PGA Championship. As a result of moving to LIV Golf, Rahm has gone from No. 5 to No. 7 following his two rounds at Valhalla.

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One of the PGA Tour brightest and youngest stars sits at No. 6 this week in Ludvig Aberg. At 24 years old in his first full season on the PGA Tour, Aberg has continued to show that he is one of the game’s best. Not only from his play from the Ryder Cup last year but add in runner-up finishes at Pebble Beach and at the Masters, Aberg put together eight top-25 finishes in a row from the Farmers Insurance Open in January to the RBC Heritage event in April.

Viktor Hovland sits at No. 5 this week. A strong PGA Championship where he regained his form after a superb 2023 season, capped off by winning the FedEx Cup, showed that the game’s best players are one tournament away from turning things around. Although he hasn’t played since the reunification between him and his old swing coach, Joe Mayo, has the opportunity for him to fuel the rest of his season, in possibly another end-of-season to remember.

Reigning U.S. Open Champion Wyndham Clark is a couple of weeks away from defending his title when the third major of 2024 kicks off at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina. Clark won at Pebble Beach earlier in the year in a tournament that was shortened due to weather. After back-to-back runner up finishes at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players Championship to Scottie Scheffler, Clark has a T3 at the RBC Heritage in between his missed cuts at both the Masters and the PGA Championship.

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Rory McIlroy comes onto this list at No. 3. McIlroy won Wells Fargo Championship for his first PGA Tour win of the season and second worldwide victory this year after winning the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour in January. McIlroy is coming off a top-five finish at the RBC Canadian Open this past week.  

The first two major winners of 2024 take up the top two spots. PGA Championship winner Xander Schauffele takes the second spot. Schauffele, who claimed his first major victory a few weeks ago at Valhalla, recorded his first win in about two years by making a birdie on the 72^nd hole. Since the 2022 Masters, Schauffele has yet to miss a cut, which currently spans 47 consecutive events.

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Since the 2023 PGA Championship, Scottie Scheffler has been the No. 1 player in the Official World Golf Rankings. Scheffler has four wins to name already, in addition to putting on the green jacket in April after winning the Masters Tournament. Scheffler has only finished outside the top 10 in a PGA Tour event this season only once, which came when he tied for 17^th at The American Express in January, and this includes his wild PGA Championship last month when, despite getting arrested before his second round, he still tied for eighth.