Rory McIlroy could lose world No.1 ranking this week

Rory McIlroy will be dethroned as golf’s world No.1 this weekend – if Jon Rahm wins the Workday Charity Open. 

World No.2 Rahm can leapfrog Northern Irishman McIlroy by taking the title, the first of two back-to-back PGA Tour events being played at Muirfield Village.

McIlroy, who has opted to sit out this week’s tournament, has been top of the pile since he ended Brooks Koepka’s 38-week reign on February 9. That began McIlroy’s eighth stint as the game’s top player.

Should he overtake McIlroy, 25-year-old Rahm would become the 24th different player to be ranked No.1 since the Official World Golf Ranking was introduced in 1986. 

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He would also become just the second Spaniard to reach the game’s summit, following the late, great Seve Ballesteros. 

Rahm has been in a rich vein of form over the last 12 months or so. In November, he finished top of the European Tour’s Race To Dubai after winning the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. He was also on a run of eight consecutive worldwide top-20 finishes before the COVID-19 pandemic plunged professional golf into lockdown in March.

However, since the PGA Tour resumed last month, the Spaniard has struggled to pick up where he left off, with a tie for 33rd at the RBC Heritage the best he has to show from his three starts so far. 

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He is also without a win on the PGA Tour since the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in April 2019 – a team event, which he won with Ryan Palmer. His most recent individual victory on the world’s most lucrative circuit came in January 2018 at the CareerBuilder Challenge. 

Rahm will be joined in his first two rounds at Muirfield Village by reigning US Open champion Gary Woodland and Norwegian sensation Viktor Hovland.