SI World Golf Rankings: Charles Howell Is One of Our Biggest Outliers

Howell has a win and a T-5 this season on the LIV Golf tour, which earns points in the SIWGR but nothing on the OWGR. See where he lands on our latest list.

Jeff Ritter | Mar 20, 2023

SI World Golf Rankings: Charles Howell Is One of Our Biggest Outliers /

It was a busy week in pro golf, as both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf tour staged events last week. It’s also a busy week in the SI World Golf Rankings, as all the action led to player movement up and down our list. (See the full top 100 here.)

Taylor Moore earned his first career PGA Tour title at the Valspar Championship, and he cracked the top 50 on our list for the first time in his career. He’s up 29 spots to 47th in the world.

On the LIV Tour, Danny Lee jumped 102 spots to 66th after beating a field with more than 20 top-100 golfers at the Tucson event. Also of note, Charles Howell finished T-5 on the heels of his win at the LIV opener in Mayakoba. He becomes one of the more interesting players in our ranking, as he climbed another 10 spots this week to 37. He’s 324th in the OWGR, which does not award points for LIV Golf events.

Here's a closer look at some of the biggest moves for the week of March 20.

3 Risers in Sports Illustrated World Golf Rankings

Charles Howell

This week: 37

Last week: 47

Skinny: T-5 at LIV Tucson comes after winning the LIV opener in Mexico. One of the widest discrepancies on the SIWGR compared to the OWGR, where Howell is No. 324.

Taylor Moore

This week: 47

Last week: 76

Skinny: Won the Valspar Championship by one shot for his first career PGA Tour title. Also earned a spot in the Masters.

Danny Lee

This week: 66

Last week: 168

Skinny: Won the LIV Golf event in Tucson in a four-man playoff to cash in a $4 million first prize check.

3 Fallers in the Sports Illustrated World Golf Rankings

Davis Riley

This week: 67

Last week: 51

Skinny: T19 in the Valspar last week, but lost a solo second in last year’s Valspar from his calculations.

Alex Noren

This week: 95

Last week: 87

Skinny: T12 at last year’s Valspar, DNP this year. MC in three of last four events.

Gary Woodland

This week: 99

Last week: 90

Skinny: T21 at last year’s Valspar; T41 last weekend.

Published Mar 20, 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.