Threatened to lose his place of world number 1 in the event of Collin Morikawa’s victory in the Bahamas, Jon Rahm is now guaranteed to finish the year 2021 at the top of the ranking. The Basque is one of the rare Europeans to hold the high for the Americans in the world top 20 since only Rory McIlroy and the surprise winner of the Hero World Challenge Viktor Hovland are also in this elite.
The 24-year-old Norwegian Viktor Hovland now has 5 victories across all circuits since his turn pro in 2019. His 4th success on the PGA Tour in Albany this Sunday allows him to climb to 7th place in the world, his best ranking.
The Scandinavian is now ahead in the hierarchy Bryson DeChambeau, but also Rory McIlroy since the Northern Irishman slipped to 9th place occupied the previous week by his Ryder Cup teammate.
Behind Rahm and Morikawa the podium is completed by Dustin Jonhson who finished the year 2020 in 1st place. In addition to the 3 Europeans, the Japanese winner of the Masters Hideki Matsuyama, the South African Louis Oosthuizen and his 3 major podiums this year (2nd in the US Open and US PGA but also 3rd in The Open), and the Mexican Abraham Ancer manage to exist among the 14 American players of the top 20 in the world!
The French
In the classification of the best tricolors almost no change in any case nothing noticeable. Without playing Victor Perez who had fallen back to 75th place gained 1 rank, Julien Brun and Frédéric Lacroix who were counting on the early season tournaments in South Africa to start their season returned home and fell back 3 and 4 places.
©PGA Tour
