Jon Rahm moves to number one in the Official World Golf Ranking due to win at The Memorial

Jon Rahm (Google Images)

The men’s golf world has a new player at number one in the Official World Golf Ranking. After Jon Rahm of Barrika, Spain won The Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio on Sunday, he passed Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland into first place in the world. Rahm now has 454.79 total points, and McIlroy has 415.57 points.

Rahm won The Memorial despite shooting +3 in the fourth and final round. Rahm’s four-round score of -9, was three strokes better than Ryan Palmer of Amarillo, Texas, who had an overall score of -6.

The victory at the Memorial was Rahm’s fourth career PGA title. He previously won the 2017 Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego, California, the 2018 CareerBuilder Challenge in Palm Desert, California, and the 2019 Zurich Classic of New Orleans team competition. Ironically, Rahm won with Palmer.

A major reason why Rahm is number one in the world is because of his success on the European Tour where he also plays. Rahm has six career titles in Europe, including two wins over the last year. They came at the Mutuactivos Open of Spain this past October, where he beat fellow Spaniard Rafa Cabrera-Bello by five strokes, and then the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai this past November, where he beat Tommy Fleetwood of England by one stroke.

With the win, Rahm becomes only the third golfer ever to be ranked number one in the world without ever winning a major throughout his career. The prior two are both from England–Lee Westwood of Worksop, and Luke Donald of Hemel Hempstead.