SI World Golf Rankings: All Hail Hovland, King of the FedEx

Viktor Hovland won his second straight event in emphatic fashion, and this time it was good for $18 million and the FedEx playoff title. See where he lands in this week’s Sports Illustrated World Golf Rankings.

Jeff Ritter | Aug 28, 2023

SI World Golf Rankings: All Hail Hovland, King of the FedEx /

Viktor Hovland picked a good month to have a really good month.

The 25-year-old Norwegian stormed to the Tour Championship title at East Lake, quickly erasing an opening-round two-shot deficit to season points-leader Scottie Scheffler and cruising Sunday to a 5-shot victory over Xander Schauffele. And as they say, to the Viktor goes the spoils: Hovland bagged the PGA Tour’s biggest cash prize: $18 million.

Hovland closed the gap on No. 3 Jon Rahm in this week’s Sports Illustrated World Golf Rankings, our proprietary, data-driven list of the top 100 men’s golfers in the world. But he remains No. 4—for now. As a reminder, here’s how we run our numbers.

Hovland has already locked up a spot on the European Ryder Cup roster, but both U.S. captain Zach Johnson and European captain Luke Donald will soon make six at-large selections to fill out their teams. Johnson’s picks are coming Tuesday morning, and if you’re curious how the SIWGR would advise Johnson to make his six picks, we ran those numbers.

Here’s a closer look at the risers and fallers in this week’s Sports Illustrated World Golf Rankings following the Tour Championship.

3 risers in the Sports Illustrated World Golf Rankings

Viktor Hovland—no change

This Week: 4

Last Week: 4

Skinny: We’re cheating here since Hovland didn’t technically move up on our list, but his win was seismic and almost enough to slip past Jon Rahm for No. 3. Hovland, Rahm and Rory McIlroy form a sturdy core for Team Europe heading into Rome.

Wyndham Clark—up two spots

This Week: 6

Last Week: 8

Skinny: Tucked in for a tidy third-place finish at East Lake. Full speed ahead to Rome.

Collin Morikawa—up seven spots

This Week: 25

Last Week: 32

Skinny: Hoping for a captain’s pick from Zach Johnson, Morikawa put a scare into Hovland before fading to T-6 with a 73 on Sunday. We’ll soon see whether it was enough to seal a pick.

3 fallers in this week’s Sports Illustrated World Golf Rankings

Brian Harman—down one spot

Brian Harman acknowledges the crowd after a putt on the 14th green during the final round of the 2023 British Open. — Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports

This Week: 8

Last Week: 7

Skinny: Finished 23rd out of 30 at East Lake to drop down a spot, but still rolling along in a summer to remember.

Sungjae Im—down six spots

This Week: 29

Last Week: 23

Skinny: Finished 24th at East Lake.

Chris Kirk—down four spots

Chris Kirk watches his tee shot on the seventh hole during the second round of the BMW Championship. — Charles Rex Arbogast/AP

This Week: 69

Last Week: 65

Skinny: Failed to qualify for East Lake after finishing just outside the FedEx top 30. Did not earn points in the SIWGR this week.

Published Aug 28, 2023

JEFF RITTER

Jeff Ritter is the managing director of SI Golf. He has more than 20 years of sports media experience, and previously was the general manager at the Morning Read, where he led that business's growth and joined SI as part of an acquisition in 2022. Earlier in his career he spent more than a decade at SI and Golf Magazine, and his journalism awards include a MIN Magazine Award and an Edward R. Murrow Award for sports reporting. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and a master's from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.