1998 World Golf Rankings: No. 1, Top 50 at End of Year
Tiger Woods was ranked No. 1 at the end of the year, even though he won "only" once on the PGA Tour, at the BellSouth Classic. Woods was also runner-up at the 1998 Masters, lost in a playoff at the Nissan Open, and had 12 Top 10 finishes. On the European Tour, Woods won the Johnnie Walker Classic.
Men's World Golf Rankings, End of 1998
These were the Top 50 golfers in the final Official World Golf Ranking of the calendar year 1998 (the number is the player's average ranking points earned per tournament):
1. Tiger Woods, United States, 12.30
2. Mark O'Meara, United States, 10.43
3. David Duval, United States, 9.67
4. Davis Love III, United States, 9.43
5. Ernie Els, South Africa, 9.18
6. Nick Price, Zimbabwe, 8.98
7. Colin Montgomerie, Scotland, 8.91
8. Lee Westwood, England, 8.65
9. Vijay Singh, Fiji, 8.51
10. Phil Mickelson, United States, 7.76
11. Fred Couples, United States, 7.65
12. Jim Furyk, United States, 7.23
13. Jumbo Ozaki, Japan, 6.77
14. Jesper Parnevik, Sweden, 6.47
15. Justin Leonard, United States, 6.42
16. Steve Elkington, Australia, 6.18
17. Darren Clarke, Northern Ireland, 5.72
18. Greg Norman, Australia, 5.65
19. Brian Watts, United States, 5.23
20. Scott Hoch, United States, 5.22
21. Mark Calcavecchia, United States, 5.19
22. Tom Lehman, United States, 5.08
23. Lee Janzen, United States, 5.02
24. Tom Watson, United States, 4.75
25. Jose Maria Olazabal, Spain, 4.62
26. Steve Stricker, United States, 4.60
27. Payne Stewart, United States, 4.49
28. Bernhard Langer, Germany, 4.45
29. John Huston, United States, 4.40
30. Stuart Appleby, Australia, 4.29
31. Jeff Maggert, United States, 4.25
32. John Cook, United States, 4.25
33. Bob Tway, United States, 4.09
34. Hal Sutton, United States, 4.00
35. Steve Jones, United States, 3.61
36. Brandt Jobe, United States, 3.60
37. Ian Woosnam, Wales, 3.44
38. Jeff Sluman, United States, 3.38
39. Carlos Franco, Paraguay, 3.36
40. Brad Faxon, United States, 3.36
41. Thomas Bjorn, Denmark, 3.33
42. Billy Mayfair, United States, 3.30
43. Shigeki Maruyama, Japan, 3.27
44. Glen Day, United States, 3.25
45. Bob Estes, United States, 3.16
46. Stewart Cink, United States, 3.10
47. Loren Roberts, United States, 3.08
48. Andrew Magee, United States, 3.05
49. Bill Glasson, United States, 3.05
50. Scott Verplank, United States, 3.00
Comparing the above end-of-1998 rankings with the end-of-1997 rankings, the biggest jump from outside the Top 50 into the Top 50 from 1997 to 1998 was by Scott Verplank, who improved from No. 347 to No. 50.
The biggest year-to-year drop within the Top 50 was by Brad Faxon, who fell from No. 14 to No. 40. The full OWGR at the end of 1998 can be viewed in the OWGR Archives.
