World Golf Rankings 2024: The first major tournament of 2024 is in the books.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler claimed his second green jacket in three years by winning the Masters by four strokes.
This marked Scheffler’s third win of 2024 after being victorious in back-to-back starts, winning at Bay Hill followed by becoming the first player to win two straight times at the Players Championship in March.
Related: Winners and losers from all four rounds of the 2024 Masters Tournament, final leaderboard
The Masters this past week also saw the return of Tiger Woods, who completed four rounds for just the fourth time in the last three years and his 100th round at Augusta National in his Masters career. The 48-year-old, who has gone through a tumultuous ride of injuries over the last three years alone, shot 1-over through 36 holes to make his 24th consecutive cut at the Masters surpassing the previous tie with Fred Couples and Gary Player.
This past week at Augusta was also the first glimpse of players on the LIV Golf circuit playing with PGA Tour professionals. The highest scoring player from LIV Golf was Cameron Smith and Bryson DeChambeau, who both tied for sixth at 2-under par. Patrick Reed was right behind them at 1-over par and tied for 12th.
Also read: LIV Golf and the Masters: Everything you need to know
As the first major wrapped up, here is a look at this week’s World Golf Rankings.
Scottie Scheffler remains at No. 1 in the World Golf Rankings
There is no question that Scottie Scheffler is not the best player in the world with the performances that he has had recently. Outside of his three victories, in his only start since winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Scheffler tied for second in the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
With the win, Scheffler became the seventh Masters Champion to begin the week at No. 1 in the World Golf Rankings. He is also the 18th player to win the Masters multiple times and the fourth-youngest to accomplish that feat at 27 years old, only trailing Jack Nicklaus, Woods and Seve Ballesteros.
In addition, Scheffler became just the second player to win the Masters and the Players Championship, joining Woods in 2001. Scheffler joined Woods and Nicklaus as the only players to win the Masters and the Players Championship multiple times.
Related: A look at every Masters from 1934 to the present
Speaking of Woods of 2001, that is kind of how Scheffler is playing right now, securing victory after victory. Furthermore, in nine events, which sums out to the 35 rounds he has played in this season, he has yet to play a round over par.
“I hate shooting over par,” Scheffler said after putting on the green jacket for the second time. “I can’t tell you how much I hate shooting over par. It’s nice to not have experienced that yet so far.”
Scheffler has been on another level compared to his competitors as he currently leads this week’s World Golf Rankings by whopping 6.3 points over Rory McIlroy.
The biggest difference has been his short game. When it came to figuring out any weakness in Scheffler’s game, the one thing that stood out was his putting. Scheffler has been one of the best in the game in ball striking, both with the driver and the irons; however, when it came to the putter, that was a different story.
Last season, Scheffler ranked 162nd on the PGA Tour in strokes gained putting. So far this season, the 27-year-old ranks 96th in that same category. The improvement of his putting game has been the key as he was one of two players with at least 20 birdies on the week, while shaving off 0.61 strokes with the putter.
The changes to the top 10 of the world golf rankings
Below Scheffler, McIlroy remained at No. 2 despite his T22 finish, however the changes start coming after that.
Xander Schauffele moved up two spots to No. 3 after finishing eighth. He surpassed both Wyndham Clark and Jon Rahm to claim the highest ranking of his career. As a result, Rahm and Clark take spots No. 4 and 5, respectively.
Viktor Hovland, who missed the cut by shooting a second round 9-over 81 and has withdrawn from this week’s RBC Heritage, remained at No. 6
More changes come at the back end of the top 10 in this week’s world golf rankings. With his runner-up finish in his first major tournament, Ludvig Aberg moved up two spots to No. 7, dropping Patrick Cantlay to No. 8.
Max Homa, who recorded his best finish at a major tournament this week at the Masters, moved up two spots to No. 9 to return to the top 10. Rounding out the top 10 is Brian Harman, who missed the cut.
Movement continues throughout the top 30
Playing against the best in the world means the rankings to the top 50 are going to fluctuate in one way or another because of how strong the Masters field was.
Tommy Fleetwood, who recorded his best finish at the Masters, rose two spots to No. 11. Matt Fitzpatrick dropped two spots to 12. Two-time major champion Collin Morikawa moved up seven spots to No. 13 with his T3 finish.
The other player who moved up inside the top 20 was Tyrrell Hatton, who rose three spots to No. 16.
Matthieu Pavon, who became the first Frenchman to win on the PGA Tour at the Farmers Insurance Open in January in what was just his third PGA Tour start, tied for 12th at the Masters and moved up three spots to No. 22 in this week’s world golf rankings. Being inside the top 12 and ties for the Masters guarantees Pavon a spot in next year’s tournament at Augusta National.
Also moving up was Chris Kirk and Sepp Straka to 25th and 28th respectively. Rounding out the top 30 was Will Zalatoris, who moved up two spots to No. 29 and Justin Thomas, who dropped two places to No. 30.