2009 World Golf Rankings: No. 1, Top 50 at End of Year
Tiger Woods was ranked No. 1 at the end of 2009 after winning six times on the PGA Tour during the year. Those wins were at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, The Memorial, AT&T National, Buick Open, WGC Bridgestone Invitational and BMW Championship. Woods also won the JBWere Masters in Australia, and finished in the Top 10 in three of the four majors.
Men's World Golf Rankings, End of 2009
These were the Top 50 golfers in the final Official World Golf Ranking of the calendar year 2009 (released on Dec. 20, 2009; the number is the player's average ranking points earned per tournament):
1. Tiger Woods, United States, 14.936
2. Phil Mickelson, United States, 8.405
3. Steve Stricker, United States, 6.781
4. Lee Westwood, England, 6.681
5. Padraig Harrington, Ireland, 5.653
6. Jim Furyk, United States, 5.616
7. Paul Casey, England, 5.451
8. Henrik Stenson, Sweden, 5.435
9. Rory McIlroy, Northern Ireland, 4.915
10. Kenny Perry, United States, 4.817
11. Sergio Garcia, Spain, 4.775
12. Ian Poulter, England, 4.687
13. Martin Kaymer, Germany, 4.561
14. Geoff Ogilvy, Australia, 4.540
15. Sean O'Hair, United States, 4.293
16. Stewart Cink, United States, 4.288
17. Ernie Els, South Africa, 4.199
18. Ross Fisher, England, 4.088
19. Retief Goosen, South Africa, 3.999
20. Lucas Glover, United States, 3.899
21. Robert Allenby, Australia, 3.895
22. Zach Johnson, United States, 3.690
23. Camilo Villegas, Colombia, 3.589
24. Anthony Kim, United States, 3.580
25. Angel Cabrera, Argentina, 3.547
26. Vijay Singh, Fiji, 3.403
27. Robert Karlsson, Sweden, 3.215
28. Luke Donald, England, 3.155
29. Hunter Mahan, United States, 3.127
30. Ryo Ishikawa, Japan, 3.070
31. Y.E. Yang, Korea, 3.033
32. Nick Watney, United States, 2.975
33. Yuta Ikeda, Japan, 2.892
34. Adam Scott, Australia, 2.813
35. Soren Kjeldsen, Denmark, 2.758
36. Mike Weir, Canada, 2.721
37. Tim Clark, South Africa, 2.696
38. Graeme McDowell, Northern Ireland, 2.614
39. Francesco Molinari, Italy, 2.607
40. Anders Hansen, Denmark, 2.603
41. Oliver Wilson, England, 2.603
42. David Toms, United States, 2.595
43. Justin Leonard, United States, 2.456
44. Simon Dyson, England, 2.449
45. Michael Sim, Australia, 2.426
46. Brian Gay, United States, 2.416
47. Soren Hansen, Denmark, 2.404
48. Miguel Angel Jimenez, Spain, 2.377
49. Edoardo Molinari, Italy, 2.351
50. Ben Curtis, United States, 2.311
Comparing the above end-of-2009 rankings with the end-of-2008 rankings, the biggest jump from outside the Top 50 into the Top 50 from 2008 to 2009 was by Edoardo Molinari, who moved from No. 653 to No. 49. Other big jumps: Michael Sim, from 312 to 45; Yuta Ikeda, 389 to 33; Nick Watney, 203 to 32; Y.E. Yang, 478 to 31; Lucas Glover, 177 to 20.
The biggest year-to-year drop within the Top 50 was by Vijay Singh, falling from No. 5 to 26th; and Robert Karlsson, from No. 6 to 27th. The full OWGR at the end of 2009 can be viewed in the OWGR Archives.
