We’re smack dab in the middle of yet another entertaining PGA Tour season. Despite strong competition from the upstart — and well-funded — LIV Golf, the PGA Tour has been better than ever. There’s been a lot of parity during the 2022-2023 season, and we’ve loved watching established veteran stars compete with up-and-coming golfers.
To help get you excited for the conclusion of the PGA Tour season, we put together a comprehensive list of the 20 best golfers on the tour. For the golfers ranked No. 20-11, we included some highlights. When we get to the top 10 golfers, you can check out a short bio coupled with their highlights.
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20. Si Woo Kim
19. Sahith Theegala
18. Hideki Matsuyama
17. Kurt Kitayama
16. Tom (Joo-hyung) Kim
15. Sungjae Im
14. Tony Finau
13. Justin Thomas
12. Sam Burns
11. Will Zalatoris
10. Jordan Spieth
Jordan Spieth’s 2015 run was historic. Spieth won the 2015 Masters and the 2015 US Open. On top of that, he finished in fourth place at the British Open and was the runner-up at the PGA Championship. Although that type of success has eluded Spieth since 2015, he’s still a top 10 golfer in the world. In 2022, Spieth won the RBC Heritage Classic in a playoff against Patrick Cantlay. He was so close to successfully defending his RBC Heritage Classic championship in 2023, but he narrowly lost to Matt Fitzpatrick in a playoff.
9. Collin Morikawa
Collin Morikawa took the world by storm in 2020. Fresh off of turning pro in 2019 after his stellar collegiate career at University of California, Berkeley, Morikawa took Daniel Berger to a playoff in the 2020 Charles Schwab Challenge — the first PGA event after a three-month break due to the pandemic. Morikawa lost the playoff, but he didn’t let that get him down. Just two weeks later, he took Justin Thomas to a playoff in the 2020 Workday Charity Open, and he defeated Thomas. One month later, Morikawa won his first major when he made a huge comeback on the final day of 2020 PGA Championship. Morikawa began his PGA Tour career by making 22 cuts in a row, which is second to Tiger Woods’ record of 25 consecutive cuts.
8. Cameron Smith
2022 was a massive year for Cameron Smith. In March 2022, Smith shocked the world by winning the Players Championship despite hitting the ball into the water on the final hole. He followed up that huge victory by finishing the Masters in third place, which was his fourth top 10 finish at the Masters. He wasn’t done there. He went on to beat Cameron Young by one stroke in the 2022 British Open, which was his first major championship. Unfortunately, Smith ended up jumping ship to LIV Golf for a reported $100 million guarantee. We won’t be seeing Smith in regular PGA Tour events any time soon, but he will still be allowed to play in major tournaments. With his recent performances in majors, it wouldn’t be a shock to see him win another major, even though he’s no longer officially part of the PGA Tour.
7. Max Homa
After winning just one PGA Tour event in his first seven years since turning pro in 2013, Max Homa won five PGA Tour events in the last two years. Homa won his first PGA Tour event in 2019 when he beat Joel Dahmen by three strokes to win the Wells Fargo Championship. He won the Wells Fargo Championship again in 2022. Also, Homa is the reigning Fortinet Championship winner. He won the tournament two years in a row, and he’ll go for his third Fortinet Championship title in September. Homa was impressive at last year’s Presidents Cup as well. He joined Spieth as the only golfers to go undefeated out of the field of 24 golfers. Homa went 4-0 in his matches, while Spieth went 5-0.
6. Matt Fitzpatrick
Fitzpatrick went pro in 2014, and he’s been solid ever since. Fitzpatrick didn’t win his first PGA Tour tournament until last year, but it was a pretty significant tournament. He narrowly won the 2022 U.S. Open over Zalatoris and Scottie Scheffler. Fitzpatrick followed his U.S. Open title up with another PGA Tour win at the RBC Heritage Classic in April 2023. After going eight years without a PGA Tour victory, Fitzpatrick is on fire, and it wouldn’t be a shock to see him rocket up these rankings in the near future.
5. Xander Schauffele
Xander Schauffele was on a tear in 2022. The San Diego native won three tournaments: the Zurich Classic of New Orleans (with partner and fellow Californian Cantlay), the Travelers Championship and the Genesis Scottish Open. These three tournament wins came after a three-year PGA Tour drought for Schauffele that lasted from January 6, 2019 until April 24, 2022 when Schauffele and Cantlay won the Zurich Classic. However, Schauffele did win something just as memorable as a PGA tournament during that drought: an Olympic gold medal. In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which took place in the summer of 2021 due to the pandemic, Schauffele won the men’s golf event and brought the United States its first gold medal in golf since 1900.
Schauffele hasn’t won a major yet, but he’s been close on several occasions. He finished in second place at the 2018 British Open and 2019 Masters. Also, he finished in third place at the 2019 U.S. Open and 2021 Masters. After Schauffele’s run of PGA Tour victories in 2022, we wouldn’t be surprised to see him take the next step and win his first major in 2023.
4. Patrick Cantlay
Next on the list is Schauffele’s Zurich Classic partner, Cantlay. While Cantlay may not possess the star power of other golfers on the PGA Tour, he’s certainly been one of the best golfers on the tour over the past couple years. In 2021, Cantlay won the Memorial Tournament, BMW Championship and PGA Tour Champion en route to winning the FedEx Cup. As the FedEx Cup champion, Cantlay took home a $15 million bonus. Unsurprisingly, Cantlay also won the 2021 PGA Tour Player of the Year award. Similar to his Zurich Classic partner, Schauffele, Cantlay hasn’t won any majors yet, but it looks like he’s had solid finishes in the last three majors. He finished 14th in the 2022 U.S. Open, eighth in the 2022 British Open and 14th in the 2023 Masters. He’s a model of consistency, and it seems like he’s due to break through and take home his first major title soon.
3. Rory McIlroy
Rory McIlroy ended 2022 as the top ranked golfer on the Official World Golf Ranking. His ranking was well earned, as he had a 2022 to remember. McIlroy finished in the top 10 in all four major tournaments, including finishing as the runner-up in the Masters and finishing third in the British Open. However, McIlroy started off 2023 on the wrong foot. He missed the cut in both the 2023 Players Championship and the 2023 Masters. With his poor performance in both of those tournaments, McIlroy fell squarely behind the top two golfers on this list.
On top of being one of the top golfers in the world, McIlroy may be the most respected golfer on the PGA Tour. This was on full display last year when McIlroy constantly came to the defense of the PGA Tour while they were facing competition from LIV Golf. McIlroy said, “I don’t feel like it’s my job to be up here and stick up for the Tour or be a spokesperson. It’s just sort of the role that I found myself in, especially coming on the PGA Tour board this year, it was a great time to agree to do that.”
2. Scottie Scheffler
If you had asked us to rank the best golfers in the world back in March 2023, then Scheffler probably would have topped the list. We certainly wouldn’t argue with you if you claimed that Scheffler is the best in the world. In fact, he was ranked as the No. 1 golfer in the Official World Golf Rankings for 35 weeks in 2022. Scheffler won the Masters in 2022, and he was the runner-up in the 2022 U.S. Open. In addition to his stellar 2022, Scheffler won the 2023 Players Championship in convincing fashion in March. He finished the Players Championship at 17-under-par, which was five strokes ahead of the runner-up. With all of that in mind, you would imagine that Scheffler should be No. 1 on this list, but we just couldn’t put him ahead of the next golfer on our list…
1. Jon Rahm
The top three golfers in the world are interchangeable, but as of today, we have Jon Rahm taking the top spot. Rahm had a relatively disappointing 2022 — when compared to his otherworldly 2021 — and he wrapped up the year sitting at No. 5 on the Official World Golf Ranking. On the heels of a disappointing year, Rahm started 2023 on an absolute tear. He kicked off the year by winning the PGA’s first tournament of 2023, the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii on January 8. Just two weeks later, Rahm won The American Express tournament.
Finally, Rahm ended up solidifying his spot as the top golfer in the world when he absolutely dominated the Masters Tournament in April to the tune of a four-stroke victory. Rahm came close to winning the elusive green jacket at the Masters many times before, as he finished in the top 10 at the Masters in three consecutive years (2019, 2020, 2021) before his disappointing 2022 season. In addition to Rahm’s dominance in 2023, it’s important to touch on how powerful he has been in the past. In 2021, Rahm finished in the top 10 in all four major tournaments, including a victory at the US Open. On top of that, Rahm was the No. 1 golfer in the World Amateur Golf Ranking for 60 consecutive weeks before he turned pro.
Golf is an extremely fluid sport, and it’s possible that these rankings change as soon as next week. However, as it stands today, Rahm is the best golfer in the world.
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