World rankings winners and losers: Unlikely Ryder Cup debutant and forgotten ex-world No.1

The past week provided plenty of headlines with the stand-out one being Tommy Fleetwood finally getting over the line on the PGA Tour.

He’s now knocking on the door of the world’s top five, but there were other significant moves as players look to turn their seasons around with one huge week or just quietly edging up the rankings.

On the flip side, we also highlight some players who are moving in the wrong direction.

The winners

Tommy Fleetwood 10 > 6

Tommy Fleetwood might well have won the Travelers Championship in June, at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, again he led by two shots with three to play.

But Keegan Bradley and Justin Rose would prevail in those respective two tournaments and Fleetwood would exit stage left with plenty of whispers about his inability to close out the big ones.

He might well have won seven times on the DP World Tour but there was a massive monkey on his back on the PGA Tour and never-ending questions about his ability to get it done.

Then, on his 164th start, he did it when it mattered most, at least from a financial point of view. At the Tour Championship, with $10m on the line, he finally won, almost with ease and by three shots in the end.

Now he’s the No. 6 in the world, up four spots from a very different position in his career just seven days ago. This is his highest ranking and he now sits between Justin Thomas and JJ Spaun.

Alex Noren 59 > 31

The Swede has been as high as 8th in the world but this was a hugely significant week in the 43-year-old’s career. Noren bogeyed The Belfry’s 18th to win by one for his 11th victory on the DP World Tour and his first success in seven years.

This year had been a wretched one for the Swede until the British Masters. He would qualify for the season-opening Sentry but he would suffer a 90 per cent tear of the tendon that attaches to the sit bone in the lower pelvis.

“I had a little bit [of tendon] left, and I was lucky. If it’s a full tear, you have a surgery and then it’s a year or something out.”

In his second start back he would make it into the final group at the PGA Championship, he would eventually tie for 17th, and now he’s a winner again and for the second time at The British Masters.

Going into the 3M Open in July, Noren looked like heading out of the world’s top 100 players – now he’s very firmly established inside the top 50.

Marco Penge 73 > 65

The Englishman was outside the top 400 players in the world when we entered the new season. Now he’s edging close to the top 50 and he’s sitting in third on the Race to Dubai rankings, behind Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy no less.

The big-hitting Penge lit up Sutton Coldfield with a Saturday 63 before a wobbly front nine saw him slip to a 72 and a tie for 6th. But the top 10s keep on coming for the champion in Denmark and he’s in the field at Crans with one last chance to impress Luke Donald for the most unlikely of Ryder Cup debuts.

Kazuma Kobori 234 > 159

If ever there was proof of what a big finish can do then the New Zealander showed what could be done late on at The Belfry. Kobori was under for the day and scratching around the top-10 spots before playing the last six holes in six under.

The 23-year-old would move up to 15-under and, had Noren not holed his bogey putt at the last, he would have found himself in a play-off for the title. His closing 65 also took him up 35 spots on the Race to Dubai rankings and a certainty for the end-of-season riches in Dubai.

The losers

Dustin Johnson 585 > 588

This is not supposed to state the obvious that LIV Golf players aren’t awarded world-ranking points, more to remind ourselves of how far a player can slip in a relatively short space of time.

The former World No. 1 was just outside the top 10 when he jumped ship to LIV in the middle of 2022. Since then he has struggled badly in the Majors – he had to rely on an invite to this year’s PGA – and there have been hardly any steps forward.

For the record, he finished 14th on this year’s LIV money list.

Henrik Stenson 1008 > 1017

In terms of Majors, the Swede has only played in The Open in the past three seasons and now he’s outside the top 1000 players in the world.

Who knows how Stenson’s life might be looking like had he stayed put and kept the Ryder Cup captaincy – had all gone to plan in Rome he might be the talk of the town ahead of the Bethpage matches.

Now his playing career is up in the air after finishing in the Drop Zone and outside the playing spots for the 2026 season. The co-captain of the Majesticks will now need to win the Asian Tour’s International Series or the promotions event where one spot is up for grabs.

Who knows how the regulations will chance with regards the senior tours next season but Stenson will turn 50 in April.

He might well also hope for a big change in the regulations and try his lie.

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