By Will Pearson, europeantour.com
As we continue to round up another brilliant year in golf, europeantour.com takes a closer look at the best and the biggest, the surges and the slumps as we profile the movers and shakers in the Official World Golf Ranking in 2015.
Augusta calling
Fourteen European Tour members secured their spot in the 2016 Masters Tournament by finishing inside the top 50 in the World Ranking at the end of year with Kiradech Aphibarnrat (36th) and Andy Sullivan (37th) set for thrilling debuts at Augusta National come April.
Amongst the 14, following his win at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open hosted by the Rory Foundation this year, Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen (45th) snared a return to the unique Georgian venue for the first time since 2010.
Meanwhile, Lee Westwood – five times a top ten finisher at the Masters – appears certain to make his 17th appearance at Augusta after a joint runner-up finish at last week’s Thailand Golf Championship helped the Englishman jump six spots in the World Ranking into 50th place.
Sergio Garcia (11)
Danny Willett (19)
Byeong Hun An (28)
Thongchai Jaidee (29)
Bernd Wiesberger (31)
Victor Dubuisson (33)
Andy Sullivan (36)
Kiradech Aphibarnrat (37)
Anirban Lahiri (40)
Matthew Fitzpatrick (43)
Chris Wood (44)
Soren Kjeldsen (45)
Jamie Donaldson (46)
Lee Westwood (50)
The Number One carousel
Rory McIlroy spent the first seven months of the year firmly lodged in the coveted World Number One slot before Jordan Spieth unseated the Northern Irishman with a runner-up finish at the US PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in mid-August.
Since then, it’s been a game of World Number One hot potato with McIlroy and Spieth trading places before Jason Day joined the fray in late September with four weeks in pole position.
With the American in the hot seat heading into 2016, the World Number One spot changed hands more times in 2015 (eight) than in any other year in the history of the Official World Golf Ranking. Fluctuations aplenty.
Fitz the record breaker
It’s been some year for Matthew Fitzpatrick. After gaining his European Tour card at the 2014 Q-School, the 21 year old Englishman finished runner-up at the Omega European Masters and almost shot 59 at the KLM Open before claiming his maiden professional title at the British Masters supported by Sky Sports at Woburn.
Fitzpatrick finished inside the top ten on ten occasions in his maiden foray in The Race to Dubai – more than any other rookie in European Tour history – and his World Ranking figures reflect all that stellar work.
The Sheffield native finishes the year fourth on the list of largest net gain in points in the World Ranking in 2015 with 114.63 – only bettered by Jordan Spieth (269.44), Jason Day (205.15) and Kevin Kisner (165.28).
Largest net gain in points in 2015
Jordan Spieth - 269.44
Jason Day - 205.15
Kevin Kisner - 165.28
Matt Fitzpatrick - 114.63
Branden Grace - 110.19
Soren Kjeldsen - 107.59
Additionally, following his tied 13th place at the BMW Masters in October, Fitzpatrick became the 12th fastest player ever to move from outside the top 1,000 in the World Ranking to inside the top 50 at just 83 weeks. To put that in context, Tiger Woods took 81 weeks to do the same while Rory McIlroy did it in 72.
The biggest movers
Patton Kizzire topped the US PGA Tour’s Web.com money list in 2015 thanks to two wins plus a further 12 top ten finishes.
The American was the fastest into the top 100 this year and also the biggest overall mover in the World Ranking – from 1,548th to 73rd – a mammoth jump of 1,475 places. Kizzire has also hit the ground running with in his first two starts on the US PGA Tour with a tied second at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open and a tied fourth at the Sanderson Farms Championship.
After struggling with a long-term hernia injury this year, former ISPS Handa Perth International winner Jin Jeong played his last event of the season at the Alstom Open de France in July and as a result made the biggest drop in the World Ranking in 2015 – a descent of 1,149 places from 431st to 1,580th.
What would the top ten be if the World Ranking was based just on results in the last…
...12 months (actual current positions in brackets)
1. Jordan Spieth - 630.50 (1)
2. Jason Day - 452.68 (2)
3. Rory McIlroy - 385.60 (3)
4. Rickie Fowler - 325.53 (6)
5. Justin Rose - 325.53 (7)
6. Bubba Watson - 325.00 (4)
7. Henrik Stenson - 312.43 (5)
8. Dustin Johnson - 285.87 (8)
9. Patrick Reed - 255.76 (10)
10. Zach Johnson - 237.91 (13)
...6 months(actual current positions in brackets)
1. Jason Day - 347.38 (2)
2. Jordan Spieth - 331.91(1)
3. Bubba Watson - 237.73 (4)
4. Henrik Stenson - 214.20 (5)
5. Rickie Fowler - 210.46 (6)
6. Justin Rose - 180.39 (7)
7. Zach Johnson - 169.05 (13)
8. Patrick Reed - 141.96 (10)
9. Branden Grace - 136.30 (14)
10. Louis Oosthuizen - 129.02 (17)
...3 months(actual current positions in brackets)
1. Jordan Spieth - 104.92 (1)
2. Patrick Reed - 96.39 (10)
3. Emiliano Grillo - 94.25 (34)
4. Rory McIlroy - 92.55 (3)
5. Justin Rose - 90.06 (7)
6. Matt Fitzpatrick - 87.22 (46)
7. Russell Knox - 86.95 (30)
8. Henrik Stenson - 83.46 (5)
9. Bubba Watson - 81.80 (4)
10. Kevin Kisner - 80.40 (18)
What would the top ten be if the World Ranking was based only on Major Championships in the last two years?
(actual current positions in brackets)
1. Jordan Spieth - 348.55 (1)
2. Rory McIlroy - 271.40 (3)
3. Jason Day - 182.38 (2)
4. Rickie Fowler - 175.55 (6)
5. Phil Mickelson - 134.60 (32)
6. Justin Rose - 131.68 (7)
7. Louis Oosthuizen - 131.48 (17)
8. Martin Kaymer - 126.10 (26)
9. Zach Johnson - 122.96 (13)
10. Dustin Johnson - 119.13 (8)
A Senior talent
In late November, veteran Australian campaigner Peter Senior claimed his third Australian Masters title on the PGA Tour of Australasia with a two-shot victory at Huntingdale.
Aged 56, Senior became the oldest player to win the championship Down Under and with it rose from 1694th to 452nd in the World Ranking – a leap of 1,242 spots and the biggest jump from an individual tournament seen in 2015.
Formidable Phil
After more than 20 consecutive years spent inside the top 25 in the World Ranking, five-time Major winner Phil Mickelson finally dropped outside that mark in early November.
To put that a different way, the last time ‘Lefty’ was outside the top 25 the date was September 10, 1995. Remarkable.
On an even keel
At fourth in the World Ranking, two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson was the only player within the top 100 to end the year in exactly the same position he finished in 2014. Consistent.
