After winning the World Championships, a reporter asked Scotty Schaufler: What is it like to be the first place in the world?
The ST champion's answer was very realistic.
"I'll only believe it when I see tomorrow's world ranking update."
But the ball king is the ball king, and just a few hours after the game, the latest issue of the world rankings is updated in time. Scotty Schaufler jumped from 5th to 1st place with a 3rd PGA Tour title, replacing Espanyol Joan Ram as the men's world ranking for the 25th world number in 34 years since its inception in 1986!
Life winner Schaufler: Champion + World No. 1
Today, Schoffler does indeed look like a "bitter lord" of Ram. A year ago, in the World Championships, Schaufler eliminated Ram in the quarter-finals; six months later, in the Ryder Cup, Schaeufler beat Ram again in the individual match on Sunday; and now in the spring of 2022, Schaufler has kicked the Spaniard off the throne.
Perhaps, what makes Ram feel a little strange is that some time ago, the opponents he faced in the "Ball King Defense Battle" were two-time Grand Slam winner Colin Morikawa, European supernova Victor Hohholland, and Federal Cup champion Patrick Cantley. How did suddenly, a "Schawler" appear, and with lightning speed, he achieved the world's first cause that was always difficult for several other people to reach?!
The speed of Schaufler's rocket-like rise is truly amazing. Just three years ago, his world ranking was just outside the 1600th! However, just after pushing Zhang Xinjun to win the year-end points king of the Korn Ferry Tour in 2019 and winning the PGA Tour full card, the Texas "post-95" guy began to soar, in just two seasons, he accumulated the top ten results of 14 PGA Tour games, including 4 runners-up, not only for two consecutive years to advance to the top 30 of the Tour Championship Finals, but also the world ranking jumped to 12th place at the end of 2021.
Schoffler ousted Ram from the throne
Schaufler once shocked the world with a 59-stroke, the second-lowest single-round scorecard in PGA Tour history, but he has always been criticized for often "dropping the chain" at key moments to miss the championship. However, entering 2022, Schoffler, who has experienced many runner-up lessons, suddenly understood the "winning code" to the champion - from the phoenix open victory on February 13, to the Palmer Invitational tournament on March 6, and now to the World Championship - Dell Technology Competition - in just 6 weeks, just 42 days, Schoffler competed in 5 games and frantically cut 3 PGA Tour champions! From a win is hard to seek, to a loss is hard to seek, the 25-year-old is directly rushing to the top! He became the 9th in the history of the world ranking with Woods, Cabos, Spieth, DJ, Koepka and others from the United States.
Interestingly, just 6 weeks ago, Schaufler made it to the top 10 in the world rankings for the first time. When the players tournament was asked by reporters about the possibility of reaching the top of the world, he himself was a little surprised: "I only knew about it when I heard you say, and I really didn't pay attention." Today, within 6 weeks, "from the top ten to the first" has also allowed Schoffler to surpass the record for the fastest in history held by Tiger Woods, who took 9 weeks to complete this achievement in 1997, while the other 23 successive champions have taken at least a year!
And from winning the first win on the PGA TOUR or European Tour to top the world, Schoffler took an incredible 42 days – 210 days faster than the previous record held by Tigers! This speed has subverted all people's imaginations about professional golf, and even Schoffler himself seems to be a little unprepared.
"It's been a bit crazy over the last few months." He said, "To be honest, I really didn't expect to go so fast. I don't think much about rankings, I just like to play golf, I like to compete. ”
Why did Schaufler's ascent so fast? One reason is that the three wins he won in a short period of time, with championship points of 62, 64 and 74 points respectively, are among the most weighted events in the world ranking system. This allows him to already have 219.78 world ranking points in 2022, which is almost equivalent to the sum of the scores scored by Morikawa, Hofland and Kanterley! On the other hand, in the past two years, Schoffler has never won a championship, and the "weight of the reduction" is much lower than that of other players, which allows him to "take advantage" in the ranking increase, thus achieving a corner overtaking and ending Ram's 36-week domination.
From the first 70 PGA Tour games, one win is hard to find, to the last 5 games to win 3 crowns
Here, I had to worry about Colin Morikawa for two seconds, at the end of last year's Hero World Challenge, he led by as many as 5 strokes to enter the final round, as long as he kept the victory, he could surpass Ram to become the world number one. Unfortunately, on Sunday, the stove collapsed and lost its crown. Otherwise, the 25th king of the history was originally a Japanese-American youngster with two Grand Slam titles, not Schoffler, who came later. And with Morikawa turning 25 on February 6, he also missed the opportunity to become the fourth youngest player in history after Woods, Spieth, and McIlroy... Instead, Schoffler, at the age of 25 years, 9 months and 6 days, became the 6th youngest world number one ever.
However, Schoffler's only 8.2948 points in the world ranking average (the total score divided by the number of games, the world ranking is based on this ranking), but also made him the "fourth weakest in history" of the new ball king. You know, when his predecessor, Ram, first came to the top of the world on July 19, 2020, the average points was as high as 9.0957 points. And when the last time the world's first change occurred, that is, on July 18, 2021, Ram needed to reach 10.0758 points to oust Dustin Johnson from the throne - you know, the world's third Colin Morikawa's 8.7795 points were higher than the current Schauvler summit!
Morikawa is only one step away from replacing Ram to the top
The "weakest" in history was german Martin Kemer, who replaced Lee Westwood on April 17, 2011, with an average score of just 7.645 when he ascended to the throne! Westwood's title is also "a little bit of water", and on October 31, 2010, before the start of the HSBC Championship, he ended Tiger Woods' last world number one hegemony so far, and his average score was only 8.287 points.
Between the two, it was Australian champion Adam Scott, who on 28 May 2014 surpassed Woods to reach number one in the world, with an average of just 7.993 points.
And the "strongest ever" world number one? YYDS Tiger Woods, of course! He not only accumulated the first 683 weeks, but also the first 281 consecutive weeks, all of which set a record for the king of the ball. On June 3, 2001, when he won his 12th PGA Tour in 12 months at the Commemorative Golf Tournament, the average score in the world ranking account reached a terrifying 32.44 points! 19.29 points higher than Phil Mickelson, the world's second-largest at the time! If you compare it with today's Schoffler, it is equivalent to 3.91 "world ball kings"...
Both Shengyu, He Shengliang...
From another point of view, Mickelson's average score at that time also reached 13.15 points, but it could only be ranked second in the world. And this is one of the biggest myths in the history of the "Ball King Battle" - Phil Mickelson, who has 5 Grand Slam titles, has never been the first in the world! In the world's second place alone, Lao Mi has been in the world for 270 weeks - almost 5 years and 3 months, but in the era when Tiger Woods dominated the world, the left-handed monster did not become the world number one for even one day... From this point of view alone, he was indeed not as "lucky" as Schoffler.
Is Schaufler the "King of Parallel Balls"? Only time will give the answer. However, among the 25 champions, only he, Lee Westwood and Luke Donald have not yet held the title of Grand Slam champion when they reach the top. Can Schaufler prove his "world first-class" strength? Instead of leaving a name for himself as "the most unsightly ball king"? I am afraid that this will be the serious challenge he will face next.
The White Tigers and Donald are world number ones who have never won a Grand Slam
Fortunately, Schoffler has managed to avoid an "embarrassing record" – the shortest-lived world number one in history. Since this week's Texas Open, none of the world's top eight masters will play, and none of the world's top six will change – which means that Schaufler will not at least retire as Tom Lehmann did in April 1997, who only became the world number one in one week.
But then, the first Grand Slam of 2022, the Masters, will debut. Schoffler, who "doesn't know what the loss is", can he use a Grand Slam champion to "justify" the king of the ball? Can Ram, Morkegawa, Hofland, Canteri, and even the players' championship new champion Cameron Smith and others be able to "fight for the king"? Presumably, this is the biggest attraction of Augusta this year.
More Bird Sports Highlights:
Friends who are "watching" will catch birds tomorrow