In the final Official World Golf Ranking of the year no fewer than five European Tour Members occupied positions in the top ten, further emphasising the strength in depth of The European Tour.
Ernie Els led the way by finishing the year in fourth place, two places ahead of Sergio Garcia with Vijay Singh, Darren Clarke and Retief Goosen occupying eighth, ninth and tenth places respectively.
Goosen climbed into the top ten from 36th place at the start of 2001 by winning the US Open Championship, The Scottish Open at Loch Lomond and the Telefonica Open de Madrid on his way to finishing top of the Volvo Order of Merit for the first time. By occupying tenth place Goosen crowned an outstanding season and ensured that all four Major Champions finished the year in the World top ten.
A look beyond the top ten makes equally impressive reading. Padraig Harrington, second to Goosen in the Volvo Order of Merit, moved up nine places during the season to 11th while Bernhard Langer combined playing both sides of the Atlantic to achieve the highest gain in ranking points, moving from 63rd to 13th during the course of the season. Langer won twice on The European Tour International Schedule on his way to finishing sixth in the Volvo Order of Merit and also finished 22nd on the US PGA Tour.
In October 2000 nine European Tour Members occupied positions in the top 20 for the first time and that pattern has been maintained with José Coceres in 19th and Colin Montgomerie in 14th joining Clarke, Els, Garcia, Goosen, Harrington, Langer, Singh in the top 20. Thomas Björn in 24th place is the tenth European Tour Member in the world top 25.
In total there are no fewer than 18 European Tour players in the top 50 including the young Australian Adam Scott, who has made huge strides this year by climbing from 145th place to 49th. Niclas Fasth, runner-up in the Open Championship at Royal Lytham and St Annes has made a similar move in advancing from 148th to 38th. Langer and Paul McGinley were the other two players to climb into the World Top 50 this year.
Apart from Garcia and Scott, three other under 25 year olds made significant progress in 2001 – Charles Howell III, David Gossett and England’’s Paul Casey who moved from outside the top 200 to 92nd.
Tiger Woods, despite a net “loss” of ranking points in 2001 compared with his outstanding 2000 season, still dominated the Official World Golf Ranking with six worldwide Ranking victories including the Players Championship, the WGC - NEC Invitational and the Masters Tournament to become the first player to simultaneously hold all four Major Championships. Woods, who led the US PGA Tour Money List for the third consecutive year, was again the highest World Ranking points earner for the year and has now been Number One for a record 124 successive weeks - a run that is bound to continue well into 2002 despite his lead being reduced from 17.75 to 6.51 points.
