[PHOTO: Oisin Keniry]
Rory McIlroy still has six months to wait to resume his chase for a long-awaited fifth Major title. In the meantime, he could find himself in a familiar position atop the Official World Golf Ranking this week. If a couple things break his way, that is.
The world No.2 could get back to No.1 by Monday based on how things play out at the PGA Tour’s CJ Cup. According to OWGR guru @Nosferatu on Twitter, there are two scenarios that would cause this to happen.
The first is McIlroy winning and current world No.1 Scottie Scheffler finishing worse than a two-way tie for second place. The second is McIlroy finishing alone in second and Scheffler finishing worse than 34th.
Obviously, McIlroy would prefer the first option and there’s plenty of reason to believe he can get it done in South Carolina. McIlroy won his most recent PGA Tour start at the Tour Championship to claim the FedEx Cup for a record third time. And starting with a runner-up at the Masters, the 33-year-old has nine top fives in 14 worldwide starts.
McIlroy has spent eight different stints at world No.1 for a total of 106 weeks. He was most recently there in July 2020 when Jon Rahm took the top spot. Scheffler has been No.1 for 30 consecutive weeks beginning this March.
