There’s a new No. 1 golfer in the world who doubles as an old No. 1 golfer in the world. With his victory at the 2022 CJ Cup on Sunday afternoon, Rory McIlroy returned to the top spot in the Official World Golf Rankings for the first time since July 2020 and ninth time in his career.

In taking down Kurt Kitayama and K.H. Lee, it was McIlroy who overtook Scottie Scheffler, ending the 2022 Masters champion’s 30-week run at No. 1.

Even more remarkable than McIlroy regaining the No. 1 ranking is that he has sustained a level of greatness over the last decade. This marks McIlroy’s ninth different stint at No. 1 just over 10 years after his debut in March 2012 shortly after he became a professional.

A lot has happened over the last decade, but McIlroy has not fallen out of the top 15 in the world in that time. He’s one of just three golfers who have a 10-year gap between their first appearance as world No. 1 and their most recent. The other two are Tiger Woods (17 years) and Greg Norman (11.5). Nobody else more than a 3.5-year gap between appearances.

“I guess that’s where I say like the cool thing about it is you get to No. 1, and it feels great in the moment,” said McIlroy earlier this week. “The bad thing is you almost [have] to … maybe work harder to stay there. I think, when you’re striving toward something, not that it’s easier to get there, but like once you get there, it’s great. But I think the hard work is actually staying there.

“I think if I get back to No. 1 this week, it’s like my ninth time getting back. It sort of illustrates you can have your runs and you can stay there, but I think the cool part is the journey and the journey getting back there. It’s sort of like a heavyweight boxer losing a world title and it’s a journey to get that title back. I feel like that’s the cool part of it and that’s the journey that I’ve sort of been through over the past 12 months.”

McIlroy has indeed been playing some of the best golf of his career over the last year. In his last 15 starts worldwide, he has 12 top 10s, 10 top fives, three wins and just one missed cut. Since the start of 2022, he’s been far and away the best statistical player in the world at over 2.7 strokes gained per round. The next closest coming into this week at the CJ Cup was Scheffler (2.5).

In a year in which McIlroy disappointingly did not win a major championship — though he finished in the top 10 in all four — it’s a bit of a reprieve that he essentially accomplished everything else: a FedEx Cup victory, three wins on the PGA Tour, close to $30 million in on-course earnings (including FedEx Cup bonus money) and a return trip to the top of the OWGR table. It’s been a remarkable showing.

Here’s a look at all nine times McIlroy has been the No. 1 player in the world.

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This is always the time of year when Americans interested in the world of golf start asking questions like: How can we win this year’s team event? That was true of the 2018 Ryder Cup in Paris, the 2019 Presidents Cup in Australia and last year’s Ryder Cup in Wisconsin. This year, though, at the 2022 Presidents Cup in Charlotte? The better question might be: How in the world could the Americans lose?

Though the Presidents Cup has grown more competitive in recent years — the U.S. was actually down 9-5 after the Saturday morning session in Australia — this year’s edition does not follow suit. Every player on the American side is ranked higher in the Official World Golf Rankings than all but three golfers on the International team. The U.S. is going to be favored in most of the matchups on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and could be favored in all of them on Sunday during singles play.

According to Caesars Sportsbook, you have to put down $750 on the stars and stripes if you want to win back a measly $100.

Of course, one doesn’t win championships on paper, but this U.S. team is experienced enough to snuff hope out if it even begins to bubble in the locker room across from theirs. Only Sam Burns, Billy Horschel, Cameron Young and Max Homa are new on the U.S. side, and they have combined to win six PGA Tour events since last year’s Ryder Cup. However, the threat of losing for the first time this century is certainly something captain Davis Love III is acutely aware of and concerned about.

“Statistically, yes, we have a higher ranked team, but I know a bunch of those young guys on their team, and they’re going to come in with a chip on their shoulder and together,” said Love this week. “I think what we’ve talked about is we both have 12 guys that support the PGA Tour that want to play in the Presidents Cup and are fired up to be on these teams. It doesn’t really matter who the favorite is in match play. That’s why we only play it — in the regular season, we only play it once because you never know what’s going to happen. So we understand all that, and we’re prepared for that.”

On the International side, only Adam Scott, Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim have ever played in a Presidents Cup before, and none of them has ever raised a trophy at the end of the week. Captain Trevor Immelman is trying his best to use the inexperience to his advantage.

“I think it’s quite clear that we’re the underdogs,” said Immelman. “We generally have been in this competition over the years so it’s a tag that we’re used to. But the exciting part for us really is I do think that it frees us up, to answer your question directly, because we have nothing to lose. If you look at our record in this tournament and you look at our world rankings versus their world rankings, we have absolutely nothing to lose.

“So, we can go out there and play absolutely as free as we want, free as we can, and see if we can match up with the crazy good skills the Americans have, that they show us week in and week out. The excitement really comes from the standpoint of, when you’re a young kid growing up outside of the U.S. or Europe and you don’t have an opportunity to play against the Americans until the ’90s when the Presidents Cup came about, now this is our opportunity. You’re a young kid who wants to get to the highest level, you want to be on the PGA Tour, you want to play in major championships and compete against the best, we’re going to have that shot this week on American soil.”

The exact American soil they will try to conquer on presents another quandary for Immelman and his team. Quail Hollow Golf Club severely favors the much longer hitters on the U.S. side. Of the 12 longest players off the tee over the last 12 months, nine of them will wear red, white and blue. That’s always problematic, but the issue is exacerbated because Quail Hollow disproportionately rewards length compared to some other courses the Presidents Cup has been played at.

There are thousands of reasons the U.S. should win its ninth Presidents Cup in a row this week at Quail Hollow, and all of them are compelling. There’s only one reason the International team could post its first win since 1998 against all odds, and it’s perhaps the most romantic reason of all. The International team could pull off one of the great upsets in golf history because — every few years or perhaps decades — something inexplicable happens in the world of sports, and documentaries and movies are made about it forever.

The 1983 America’s Cup was brought up to Love on Tuesday. It’s a famous yacht race which the U.S. had not lost for 132 years but blew a 3-1 lead to the Australians in the best-of-seven finale back in 1983. There’s a terrific documentary on Netflix about what is now billed as the Race of the Century. Love was not dismissive of the Match of the Century playing out this week in North Carolina, nor did he engage with its likelihood or probability.

In other words, it’s something that he knows could happen but probably won’t. As a more unbiased third party, however, I would say the likelihood of this International team taking down this American team at this golf course in this week with the experience, talent and leadership the U.S. has is almost zero. Next to nothing. Too small to be measured. So it’s not going to happen. But, you know, what if it did?

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