With his win at the Valspar Championship on Sunday, Sam Burns jumped into the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time. Unfortunately, that mean Dustin Johnson got bumped from that elite company for the first time—in a long time.
Johnson’s T-39 at Innisbrook coupled with Burns’ victory dropped the two-time major champ down to No. 11. And it’s the first time Johnson hasn’t been ranked in the top 10 in seven years.
In March of 2015, Johnson won the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral to vault from 16th to No. 7. He remained in the top 10 since, including being ranked No. 1 for a total of 135 weeks. That total is third-most behind Tiger Woods (683 weeks) and Greg Norman (331 weeks) since the Official World Golf Ranking’s inception in 1986.
Twitter OWGR guru Nosferatu first pointed out Johnson potentially falling below the top-10 benchmark on Sunday:
OK, knowing DJ being DJ, we’re guessing there wasn’t much trepidation on his part. Still, it is surprising to see him ranked this low.
Johnson was already No. 1 when he won the 2020 Masters by five shots. And he only relinquished the top spot following Jon Rahm’s victory at last year’s U.S. Open. But Johnson hasn’t won a PGA Tour event since that November Masters, although he did win last year’s Saudi International on the DP World Tour.
In related news, our Twitter friend also pointed out another unusual fact about the new top 10:
Rory McIlroy is 32 and he’s the oldest top-10 player. Pretty crazy.
Also crazy is the fact that Johnson has won at least once in his first 14 full seasons on the PGA Tour. The 37-year-old has yet to win in five starts this season with his best finish being a T-9 at the Players Championship.