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SCOTTSDALE — The No. 1 ranking means different things to different men. It probably feels like a birthright to Brooks Koepka, who swaggers through the PGA Tour like John Wayne on his way to a gunfight. Koepka has held the No. 1 ranking for 37 consecutive weeks since May 19, and for 46 weeks total. He might lose it in four days.
This is the second straight week that Koepka’s ranking has been under threat. Had Rory McIlroy won last week at the Farmers Insurance Open, he would have reclaimed the top spot he last held in September 2015. He finished T-3. This week’s challenger is Jon Rahm, who can topple the four-time major champion with a victory at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Not that the fiery Spaniard learned as much until Wednesday afternoon.
“I found that out 10 minutes ago. I had no idea,” he admitted. “A little surprised. I mean, I have been playing really, really good golf, especially since that U.S. Open. And for the better part of the tournaments I play, I pretty much I’ve had a chance to win or finish top-10.”
Since finishing T-3 at Pebble Beach last summer — which left him 11th in the world — Rahm has made 14 worldwide starts. He has won three times, been second four times, and had just one finish outside the top 13, a missed cut at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship last fall. The run of hot form has him ranked third, behind only McIlroy, who is idle this week, and Koepka, who is playing against lighter opposition in Saudi Arabia.
“Being No. 1 in the world, it’s a consequence of good golf,” Rahm said with a shrug, which might explain why he’s focused less on how the ranking will look on Monday than on how the leaderboard appears Sunday night. “I got to take care of business this week and it’s not going to change my mindset. Obviously, it’s a goal in every player’s mind to be No. 1 in the world, and it is a goal of mine at some point, but I still got things to do to, take care of every day and make the right putts and hit the right shots for that to really happen. So I’m just going to focus on what I have to do starting tomorrow.”
If Rahm sounds like he considers the ranking a byproduct of good play, other PGA Tour stars still think of it as a sought-after status, even those who have scaled the lofty heights before.
“It’s a huge goal. It still is for me because I’ve lost it. But it’s a tremendous honor,” said Justin Thomas. “I think it’s always really cool being a part of something that not very many people have done. It’s pretty cool walking around — I mean, I did it for all of two weeks or whatever it was — but walking around, it’s like, I’m better than every single person on this planet in golf.”
Thomas is underselling himself. He held the No. 1 ranking for four weeks in the spring of 2018, ending Dustin Johnson’s 64 weeks on top before being replaced by Johnson again for another 13 weeks. There were nine changes at the top of the ranking that year, with Koepka and Justin Rose also enjoying stints atop the mountain.
That’s a perch only 23 men have ever experienced since Bernhard Langer topped the first ranking in 1986. Some legends set up residency at No. 1 —Tiger Woods held it for 683 weeks, Greg Norman for 331 — while others were ousted before a celebratory hangover would have had time to clear (Tom Lehman was No. 1 for one week).
Rahm would be the second Spaniard to be world No. 1 after the late Seve Ballesteros, who totaled 61 weeks on top more than 30 years ago. When it was suggested that he didn’t seem overly excited at the prospect of being officially crowned the best golfer on the planet, Rahm added a little pep to his position. “Of course. Yeah, it is. I mean, I wouldn’t be doing this if my goal wasn’t to be the best. It’s as simple as that,” he said. “I tee it up to win every time, I practice to be the best I can be, and hopefully the best I can be takes me to No. 1 at some point.”
That point may be just days away.
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