The old phrase “what a difference a year” makes certainly applies to a good number of pro golfers.
When it comes to the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings for men’s professional golf, there some good and some not so good in terms of where players ranked a year ago as compared to now.
For Will Zalatoris, he was one of the big sliders the wrong direction. Not his fault, really, as he underwent back surgery and missed a lot of action.
Meanwhile, rising star Ludvig Aberg is more like a shooting star, as he has rocketed into the top 10 of the December 2023 rankings.
Here’s a closer look at some of the biggest movers in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings from a year ago. How they work:
Jeff Sagarin’s rating system is based on a mathematical formula that uses a player’s won-lost-tied record against other players when they play on the same course on the same day, and the stroke differential between those players, then links all players to one another based on common opponents. The ratings give an indication of who is playing well over the past 52 weeks.
Also, players must have played in at least 10 events to be ranked.
Editor’s note: We’ve included the Official World Golf Ranking for the sake of comparison.