Ranking the Top 25 Men's Pro Golfers After J.J. Spaun's U.S. Open Win
T-minus four weeks.
Now that three-quarters of the major championship calendar is in the rear-view mirror, the golf world's focus can shift forward to next month's British Open at the Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland.
And with the refocus on the calendar comes a reconfiguring of the pecking order among players after J.J. Spaun hoisted the U.S. Open trophy at Oakmont.
The B/R golf team waded into the discussion to rank the world's top 25 based on myriad factors, primarily recent performances and prospects going forward as we officially cross into the dog days of summer.
Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the comments.
Nos. 25-21
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25. Si Woo Kim: Momentum is the buzzword for the 29-year-old Korean, who missed four cuts in his first 11 tournaments this year but has made seven in a row after Oakmont and finished tied for eighth at both the RBC Heritage and the PGA Championship.
24. Harris English: The quietly consistent Georgian has multiple top-10s in 13 of the last 15 years and made his closest pass at a major with a tie for second at the PGA Championship last month. He's also had three top-10s in seven U.S. Open starts.
23. Ben Griffin: Another who's climbed the ladder under the radar, Griffin has jumped from 96th to 65th and now 15th in the rankings thanks to two wins and six top-10s in 2025. His eighth at last month's PGA was his first top-10 at a major.
22. Joaquin Niemann: The most-traveled player on this list so far, Niemann has won events on the PGA, European, Asian and LIV tours. It hasn't translated to the majors, though, where an eighth at the 2025 PGA is his only top-10 in 25 tries.
21. Viktor Hovland: The most consistent winner on this tier, Hovland has 11 victories since the start of 2020 and has climbed as high as third in the world rankings. Five seventh-or-better finishes in his last 12 majors have him on "best to not win" lists, too.
Nos. 20-16
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20. Tyrrell Hatton: Yet another player who's won in multiple places, Hatton was successful in Europe and on the PGA Tour before jumping to LIV and winning last June. He had five top-10s at majors from 2016-19 but only two in 22 tries since.
19. Sam Burns: It'd be hard to scale the mountain any quicker than Burns, who was ranked 154th at the end of 2020 before spiking to 11th a year later after two wins and nine top-10s. He took second in the Canadian Open and led after 54 holes before a final-round 78 dropped him to a seventh-place tie at Oakmont.
18. Robert MacIntyre: An amateur star in his native Scotland, MacIntyre took time to find pro form before grabbing two PGA Tour wins in 2024 and finishing the year ranked 14th in the world. He's got four top-10s in 18 career major tournaments after taking second to Spaun at Oakmont.
17. Keegan Bradley: It was quite the rookie season for Bradley in 2011, when he bagged a major with a playoff win at the PGA Championship. He's not cashed in for another since, but he has won at least one PGA Tour event in three straight years.
16. Jon Rahm: A move to the LIV tour harpooned Rahm's world ranking but there's no doubt he's a proven elite commodity given a pair of major wins (2021 U.S. Open, 2023 Masters) and 15 top-10s at the 35 events he's played since 2016.
Nos. 15-11
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15. Corey Conners: San Antonio is apparently my kind of town for Conners, who's cashed both his PGA Tour winner's checks at the Valero Texas Open in 2019 and 2023. He finished 2024 ranked 40th but leapt to 21st with five top-10s in 15 events.
14. Hideki Matsuyama: It's hard to believe Matsuyama is just 33 given his vast achievements, which include a win at the 2021 Masters and top-10s at each of the other majors. His 11 wins on the PGA Tour are the most ever by a Japanese player.
13. Ludvig Aberg: He was never in the mix at Oakmont, but Aberg is another mainstay on worthwhile "best without a major" lists. He briefly shared the lead in the final round at the 2025 Masters but ultimately took seventh after finishing second in 2024.
12. Patrick Cantlay: Twelve years as a pro has yielded eight PGA Tour wins for Cantlay, who got three in playoffs and lost four others in sudden death. He's been ninth or better at every major, peaking with a tie for third at the 2024 U.S. Open before missing the cut this time around.
11. J.J. Spaun: It's a perpetual tale of resilience for the 34-year-old, who lost his PGA Tour card in 2021 but worked back to a No. 25 ranking heading into Oakmont. He topped the leaderboard with a first-round 66 but was four back with nine holes to play on Sunday before rallying to snatch his first major.
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Nos. 10-6
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10. Russell Henley: Few have been as consistent lately as Henley, who was ranked 222nd after 2019 but had moved to seventh when the field teed off at Oakmont. He didn't get a sniff at majors until 2023 but has since earned top-10s at three of the four.
9. Shane Lowry: Perceptions have changed about Lowry, who had top-10s at three of his first 23 majors but has added six since, including a six-stroke win at the 2019 British Open. He'll be a favorite again in July as the event returns to Royal Portrush.
8. Sepp Straka: Raise your hand if you forecast the ascension of Straka, a 32-year-old Austrian who's won four times and had 20 other top-10s since the start of 2022. He tied for second at the British Open in 2023 and seventh at that year's PGA.
7. Tommy Fleetwood: The popular Englishman broke into double-digit rankings numbers as a 23-year-old and has stayed relevant since, ending 2024 at No. 9. He's been fifth or better at each major and earned a silver medal at the 2024 Olympics.
6. Justin Thomas: "JT" crossed over from "best without a major" to "major champion" in 2017 when he captured the PGA Championship at age 24. He added another five years later and spent time as the world's No. 1 player in 2018 and 2020.
5. Xander Schauffele
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Anyone seeking this generation's "money golfer" could do a lot worse than Schauffele, who's earned a top-10 in at least one major for eight of the last nine years, including a pair of victories.
Now 31, the Californian became the first player since 2018 to win two majors in a single year when he fired final-round 65s to capture both the PGA Championship and the British Open in 2024.
He was eighth or better in each of the other two majors that year as well and performed another significant double in 2021 when he won gold at the COVID-delayed Olympics in Tokyo and went 3-1-0 in helping the U.S. to a Ryder Cup triumph.
4. Collin Morikawa
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To call Morikawa a golfing prodigy is an understatement.
He turned pro in 2019 and made 22 straight cuts on the PGA Tour, second only to Tiger Woods' record of 25. Additionally, he became a two-time major winner by capturing both the PGA Championship (in 2021) and the British Open (in 2022) in his competitive debuts at those events.
Top-fives at each of the other two majors have followed for Morikawa, who climbed as high as No. 2 in the world rankings after the 2021 season. He was an also-ran at Oakmont but had two seconds and three top-10s in his first 11 events in 2025.
At age 28, there's a lot left to accomplish.
3. Bryson DeChambeau
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DeChambeau certainly didn't sneak up on the golfing world.
He won the NCAA Division I title and the U.S. Amateur in 2015, joining the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods to earn both in the same year.
But before you assume it created undue pressure when he turned pro, don't.
The burly California native had won five PGA Tour events by the end of 2018 and began bagging majors in 2020 when his 6-under finish at Winged Foot was enough to win the U.S. Open by six shots. Another U.S. Open title came four years later when the same 6-under total beat Rory McIlroy by a stroke.
He's won three times since jumping to the LIV Tour and contended at the Masters and the PGA Championship this year, tying for fifth and second, respectively.
2. Rory McIlroy
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The phenom has become the grand old man.
McIlroy turned pro at 18, reached the top 200 at 19 and was a PGA Tour winner at 20, beating Phil Mickelson by four strokes at the Quail Hollow Championship to become the first player since Tiger Woods to hoist a trophy before turning 21.
A string of majors followed soon after and the Northern Irishman finished as the world's No. 1 player in 2012, 2014 and 2022. He joined an even more exclusive fraternity in April by completing the career Grand Slam with a win at Augusta.
In fact, three wins in his first 11 events this season have him within reach of his first four-win year since 2019 and two shy of his career-best five in 2012.
1. Scottie Scheffler
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Argue all you like about spots 2 through 25.
Because No. 1 is a no-brainer.
Scheffler took his most recent hold of the world's No. 1 ranking after a tie for second at the PGA Championship in 2023 and has shown precisely zero signs of letting it go since, winning 12 times in his last 35 events in addition to an Olympic gold.
He'd already won one major (the 2022 Masters) by then and has added two more, winning at Augusta again in 2024 and taking the PGA by five shots in May.
Yes, he's that good.
And the folks who know what they're looking at? They see it, too.
“It’s probably, truly the closest thing to like a dominant Tiger back through the 2000s as we’ve had,” Adam Scott, a world No. 1 for 11 weeks in 2014, told The Athletic. "I would have said I don’t see anyone separating themselves as much as Tiger did, and Scottie is getting close to it."
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