SI World Golf Rankings: The Gooch is On Fire

Talor Gooch became LIV Golf's first back-to-back winner. See how high he's climbed in the latest SIWGR.

Jeff Ritter | May 1, 2023

SI World Golf Rankings: The Gooch is On Fire /

Talor Gooch won back-to-back on the LIV Golf tour, and he makes a big move up the SI World Golf Rankings this week. World rankings continue to be a flashpoint of controversy, as we’re in the heart of major-championship season, but LIV golfers still have no way to earn points toward moving up the OWGR, and qualifying for majors. The Sports Illustrated World Golf Rankings, which we launched in February, treat all pro tours equally in its calculations —strength of field and strength of golf course matter, and you can see how we run our list here. Meanwhile, here’s an excerpt from Bob Harig’s latest Weekly Read that nicely summarizes where things stand with rankings.

While any ranking system is going to have flaws and potential issues—the task of ranking players around the world who play in different tournaments on different courses is immense and the OWGR has been criticized in the wake of changes made last August—it is fair to argue that the OWGR is not fulfilling its mission to accurately rank golfers worldwide. Its mission does say "eligible golf tours," of which LIV Golf is not at the moment.

At the moment, SI’s ranking has 11 LIV players in the top 50, with Data Golf having 10 and the OWGR having six. Without earning points, the OWGR number will continue to dwindle.

And yet it should be noted that other ranking systems do not necessarily offer a fast-track up the rankings. Thomas Pieters, who remains ranked among the top 50 OWGR, is not in the top 50 for SI or Data Golf.

Here are some notable risers and fallers on the SI World Golf Rankings list this week.

3 Risers in the SI World Golf Rankings

1

Talor Gooch

This Week: 23

Last Week: 38

Skinny: Gooch has beaten two consecutive fields comprised of about 20 top-100 golfers. For the second straight week he makes a big jump.

2

Sergio Garcia

This Week: 55

Last Week: 87

Skinny: Lost to Gooch in a playoff in Singapore for his best finish since joining LIV Golf last year.

3

Emiliano Grillo

This Week: 71

Last Week: 74

Skinny: T5 in Mexico this week. This was a rare week where the LIV Golf field was stronger and worth more points in the SIWGR than the PGA Tour. Tony Finau’s ranking was flat week-over-week, as he won the event, but that result replaced Finau's runner-up finish from last year in his 12-month calculation.

3 Fallers in the Sports Illustrated World Golf Rankings

1

Patrick Reed

This Week: 30

Last Week: 26

Skinny: T13 in Singapore and also lost a few points from his T42 at last year’s Mexico Open, which fell out of his calculation.

2

Gary Woodland

This Week: 77

Last Week: 81

Skinny: T39 against a pretty soft field in Mexico last weekend. Also lost last year’s T24 finish in Mexico from his metrics.

3

Richard Bland

This Week: 86

Last Week: 81

Skinny: T36 out of 48 players at LIV Singapore. Likely not long for the top 100 without a better result in the upcoming Tulsa event.

Published May 1, 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.