2006 World Golf Rankings: No. 1, Top 50 at End of Year
Tiger Woods was ranked No. 1 at the end of the year after winning eight times on the PGA Tour, including two majors: The 2006 British Open and 2006 PGA Championship. Woods' other PGA Tour victories were the Buick Invitational, Ford Championship at Doral, Buick Open, WGC Bridgestone Invitational, Deutsche Bank Championship and WGC American Express Championship. In addition, Woods won the Dubai Desert Classic on the European Tour, and the Target World Challenge.
Men's World Golf Rankings, End of 2006
These were the Top 50 golfers in the final Official World Golf Ranking of the calendar year 2006 (released on Dec. 31, 2006; the number is the player's average ranking points earned per tournament):
1. Tiger Woods, United States, 20.41
2. Jim Furyk, United States, 8.88
3. Phil Mickelson, United States, 7.17
4. Adam Scott, Australia, 7.03
5. Ernie Els, South Africa, 6.05
6. Retief Goosen, South Africa, 5.61
7. Vijay Singh, Fiji, 5.58
8. Padraig Harrington, Ireland, 5.46
9. Luke Donald, England, 5.25
10. Geoff Ogilvy, Australia, 5.21
11. Sergio Garcia, Spain, 5.12
12. Henrik Stenson, Sweden, 4.62
13. Trevor Immelman, South Africa, 4.58
14. David Howell, England, 3.80
15. Paul Casey, England, 3.75
16. Davis Love III, United States, 3.69
17. Colin Montgomerie, Scotland, 3.64
18. Jose Maria Olazabal, Spain, 3.54
19. David Toms, United States, 3.46
20. Chris DiMarco, United States, 3.46
21. Nick O'Hern, Australia, 3.33
22. Stuart Appleby, Australia, 3.33
23. Tim Clark, South Africa, 3.24
24. Shingo Katayama, Japan, 3.18
25. Michael Campbell, New Zealand, 3.17
26. Stewart Cink, United States, 3.12
27. Chad Campbell, United States, 3.10
28. Angel Cabrera, Argentina, 3.08
29. K.J. Choi, Korea, 3.01
30. Rod Pampling, Australia, 2.93
31. Robert Karlsson, Sweden, 2.92
32. Joe Durant, United States, 2.87
33. Y.E. Yang, Korea, 2.86
34. Ian Poulter, England, 2.82
35. Darren Clarke, Northern Ireland, 2.81
36. Carl Pettersson, Sweden, 2.71
37. Jeev Milkha Singh, India, 2.63
38. Lucas Glover, United States, 2.61
39. Rory Sabbatini, South Africa, 2.58
40. Brett Wetterich, United States, 2.56
41. Ben Crane, United States, 2.55
42. Niclas Fasth, Sweden, 2.54
43. Stephen Ames, Canada, 2.52
44. Arron Oberholser, United States, 2.51
45. Mike Weir, Canada, 2.50
46. Thomas Bjorn, Denmark, 2.48
47. Robert Allenby, Australia, 2.47
48. Johan Edfors, Sweden, 2.46
49. Lee Westwood, England, 2.39
50. Bradley Dredge, Wales, 2.37
Comparing the above end-of-2006 rankings with the end-of-2005 rankings, the biggest jump from outside the Top 50 into the Top 50 from 2005 to 2006 was by Johan Edfors, who improved from No. 410 to No. 48. Jeev Milka Singh went from No. 376 to No. 37, and Robert Karlsson from No. 216 to No. 31.
The biggest year-to-year drop within the Top 50 was by Angel Cabrera, who fell from No. 12 to No. 28; and Thomas Bjorn, who dropped from 22nd to 46th. The full OWGR at the end of 2006 can be viewed in the OWGR Archives.
