Golfers who have reached #1 in the Official World Golf Rankings

The Official World Golf Rankings were established in 1986 to measure performance of professional golfers.  These rankings change weekly and are based on tournament results from the previous 2 years.  Certain tournaments such as the Major championships (Masters, US Open, Open Championship, and PGA Championship) and the four World Golf Championships use the rankings to determine which players are automatically qualified to enter the events.

For the first 10 years of the OWGR, there were only 7 different golfers who held the title of World #1.  The next 15 years brought forth the age of Tiger Woods.  During a 12 year period from 1998 to 2010, Tiger was the world #1 90% of the time.

Since 2010, there have been 8 different golfers (including Tiger for a 7 week span).  This season there have been 7 changes in the #1 spot and the mantle has been passed to the new "Big 3" golfers in the sport - Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, and Jason Day - all under the age of 30.