This has become a tradition here at Golf Channel, tracking the Official World Golf Ranking movement of every player in the world over the course of the year.
And as with previous editions, there will be players whose climbs or falls come as no surprise. We still can vividly replay J.J. Spaun’s putt to win the U.S. Open this past summer in our heads, while young stars Sahith Theegala and Will Zalatoris had their years – and subsequently, world rankings – derailed by injury.
But there are also names, in some cases, that we barely noticed until seeing the numbers for ourselves. Who had Davis Bryant or JC Ritchie on your bingo card last Jan. 1? Or on the flip side, was Matthieu Pavon’s sophomore season on the PGA Tour really that bad? Answer: It was.
This exercise can also signal further breakouts. Take Brennan, 2025’s biggest riser, for example; he had the 17th biggest rise in the OWGR in 2024, at 83.47%. Or, it could mean nothing at all; Penge fell 112 spots, to No. 416, last year before orchestrating a three-win campaign on the DP World Tour and a promotion to the PGA Tour.
As always, it’s fun to see who didn’t move at all over the course of 12 months. This year’s trio – No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (duh), No. 207 Sam Ryder and No. 257 Darius Van Driel.
While the full list of movement is listed at the bottom, first, here are a few notable players who were either among the top risers or those who suffered the biggest declines in 2025:
UP
ST GEORGE, UTAH – OCTOBER 26: Michael Brennan of the United States reacts to his winning putt on the 18th green during the final round of the Bank of Utah Championship 2025 at Black Desert Resort on October 26, 2025 in St George, Utah. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images)
Michael Brennan
Movement: No. 681 to No. 34 (+95.01%)
Why the rise? It certainly helps when you win your first PGA Tour title as a sponsor exemption as the 23-year-old Wake product did at the Bank of Utah Championship in October. Brennan didn’t record another top-15 finish in his final three fall starts, but if Brennan’s three-win campaign on PGA Tour Americas this year is any indication, when the guy gets hot, he gets really hot. “A lot of mental maybe fortitude, or focus, has gotten a lot better,” Brennan said that Sunday in Utah. “Definitely been some technical things that have improved a lot around the green and on the green. I think that showed this week. Feel like I was pretty good around the greens. But a lot of belief in my game that I’m capable.”
Jun 15, 2025; Oakmont, Pennsylvania, USA; JJ Spaun celebrates with the championship trophy after winning the 125th U.S. Open golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
J.J. Spaun
Movement: No. 119 to No. 6 (+94.96%)
Why the rise? Spaun nearly quit the game after last season, thinking after eight seasons and one win on the PGA Tour that he’d be OK doing something else should he lose his card. Only Spaun kept full status, then turned in a career year in 2025. He had three runner-up showings, including a playoff loss to Rory McIlroy at The Players, and his first major title, at the U.S. Open. Spaun’s No. 8 rank in strokes gained tee to green wasn’t a shock; he’s always been a flusher. But he was positive around the greens and with the putter as well, much of that due to linking up with short-game coach Josh Gregory shortly before his triumph at Oakmont. Spaun was a bright spot at the Ryder Cup, going 2-1, and proved late in the year, with a T-11 in Cabo and T-4 in the Bahamas, that he’s poised to build on the breakout campaign. The Spauns had a family trip to England planned for the holidays. “It will be fun to just decompress and look back on the year, enjoy a little bit of travel without the golf clubs,” Spaun said. “Yeah, it will be nice to relish all that I’ve accomplished this year.”
MADRID, SPAIN – OCTOBER 12: Marco Penge of England celebrates with the Champion Trophy during the Open de España presented by Madrid, R4 Final, golf tournament of DP World Tour at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid on October 12, 2025, in Madrid, Spain. (Photo By Oscar J. Barroso/Europa Press via Getty Images)
Europa Press via Getty Images
Marco Penge
Movement: No. 416 to No. 29 (+93.03%)
Why the rise? At the start of this year, Penge was trending in the wrong direction. He had just barely kept his DP World Tour card after a rookie season in which he missed 19 cuts when he was suspended two months for placing small wagers on golf tournaments. Penge, who had become a dad last June to a son, Enzo, was out of action until late February, but when he returned, he looked like a changed man. After a T-20 in Kenya, he was third at the South African Open, and a couple months later, he picked up his first DPWT title, at the Volvo China Open. “What doesn’t kill you makes your stronger,” Penge said after his maiden win. That, of course, opened the floodgates, as Penge won twice more, while adding a runner-up at the Scottish Open, to finish No. 2 in the Race to Dubai and earn his PGA Tour card. His current world rank is important, too, because as long as he remains inside the top 30, he can play signature events off that ranking. “I still am in disbelief in a way that I am in the position that I am,” Penge said in November. “Not from the point that I don’t think I’m good enough, just from the point of how fast it’s happened.”
Davis Bryant
Movement: No. 2,217 to No. 289 (+86.96%)
Why the rise? After finding success on mini-tours last year, the 2023 Colorado State grad has gone globetrotting, earning status on the European tours and playing events in every continent except South America and Antarctica. This year, he posted top-10s on the DP World Tour (twice), HotelPlanner Tour and the Professional Golf Tour of India. “Went outside of my comfort zone completely,” Bryant said in a recent interview with Monday Q Info. “And wherever that was going to be in the world, I wanted to play in bigger tournaments, for more money, and try and advance my career.” He needed to regain his DPWT card via Q-School, which he did, and he’s already started this new season with top-15s at the Australian PGA and Australian Open.
Richard Sterne
Movement: No. 1,207 to No. 200 (+83.43%)
Why the rise? Well, for the first seven months of the year, the veteran Sterne, now 44 and rebuilt after numerous surgeries, showed virtually no signs of a resurgence. He missed 11 of his first 14 cuts, mostly on the DP World Tour, with only one finish inside the top 50. But time in the competitive doldrums, a byproduct of operations on his back, hip and wrist (three times) – and all since 2020 – that limited Sterne to just 21 events from 2020-24, couldn’t break the South African’s spirit. He followed an MC at the PGA Tour’s Barracuda with a T-10 at the Nexo Championship. Eight weeks later, he tied for third at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. And he closed his DPWT season with top-15s at the Genesis Championship and Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, a tournament he also played in 2006, the inaugural year and before Yas Island, where the event is contested now, was even established. “I don’t think they were very positive that I’d be able to compete when I had the back surgery,” said Sterne, who missed all of 2023 and most of last year. “To get back to this level is something that hasn’t been tested too often; I think there’s only one or two players with it that are still playing. I put in hard effort in the gym for 18 months just to get back here and thank goodness that I did.”
DOWN
PINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA – JUNE 14: Matthieu Pavon of France reacts on the fifth green during the second round of the 124th U.S. Open at Pinehurst Resort on June 14, 2024 in Pinehurst, North Carolina. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Matthieu Pavon
Movement: No. 31 to No. 236 (-661.29%)
Why the fall? Pavon burst onto the scene on the PGA Tour by winning the 2024 Farmers. He followed with a third at Pebble and later a solo fifth while playing in the final group at the U.S. Open. The Frenchman earned a spot in every signature event this year by virtue of his No. 17 place in the FedExCup, but he’d go on to not crack the top 40 in any of them in 2025. In fact, Pavon didn’t record his first top-40 finish this year until the fall, when he was T-31 in Cabo. Luckily, his No. 171 finish in points matters little because he’s got one year left on his winner’s exemption, though at 33 years old, Pavon will need to drastically improve across the board; he ranked No. 110 or worse in all four strokes-gained categories. “Every season brings challenges,” Pavon tweeted in late November. “We review, we adjust, and we build. The direction is clear: on to next season.”
Jul 20, 2025; Portrush, IRL; Wyndham Clark on the first hole during the final round of The 153rd Open Championship golf tournament at Royal Portrush. Mandatory Credit: Mike Frey-Imagn Images
Wyndham Clark
Movement: No. 7 to No. 46 (-557.14%)
Why the fall? Before his breakout 2023, Clark had gone four straight seasons ranking No. 173 or worse in strokes gained approach. This year, the iron play reverted, as he ranked No. 154. He went from No. 18 off the tee to No. 84 as well. By the U.S. Open, he’d decided to go back to some old ball-striking habits, though that week would mark Clark’s season in a different way. He missed the cut at Oakmont, then made headlines for damaging a couple lockers on his way out. That followed an incident at the PGA Championship. “I’m very sorry for what I did and feel terrible, and hopefully in a few months we’re past this, and it’s something of the past,” Clark later told reporters at The Open, where he surprisingly tied for fourth, part of a three-start stretch where Clark finished T-12 or better. “I’ve been pretty open about my mental shift and change to get better, and I did that in ’23 and ’24. And then having a tough year and all the expectations and just frustration all coming together, and I did two stupid things,” Clark added. “But one thing that it did do is wake me up and get me back into the person I know I am and the person I want to be.” Clark couldn’t keep up that momentum, however, bowing out of the playoffs with a T-56 in Memphis and missing two of his last three cuts in the fall, including one on the DP World Tour.
CROMWELL, CONNECTICUT – JUNE 20: Tom Kim of South Korea walks on the 17th green during the first round of the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands on June 20, 2024 in Cromwell, Connecticut. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)
Tom Kim
Movement: No. 21 to No. 107 (-409.52%)
Why the fall? “Where did the game go?” The 23-year-old Kim found himself asking that question a lot the past couple years, he admitted back in late April. He started 2024 as the No. 11 player in the world, and while he had three runners-up last year, at Travelers, the DPWT’s Genesis Championship and Hero, he still had slipped nearly outside the world’s top 50 as he spoke to reporters ahead of the Byron Nelson. He missed the cut their and then didn’t have another transcribed interview until the Sanderson Farms in October, where he’d finish T-11, his best showing since a T-7 at Pebble Beach. Those were Kim’s only two top-15s in 2025, which saw the three-time PGA Tour winner plummet to No. 107 in the world rankings. Looking at Kim’s stats, it’s easy to pinpoint big dips in driving, iron play and putting. His No. 70 rank in strokes gained approach was especially troubling considering Kim was top 10 in that category two seasons prior. Kim hinted at swing changes this fall, though didn’t elaborate. “When you’re not confident about yourself on the golf course, you’re not going to hit as good of shots as you would normally be able to,” Kim said at Sanderson. “After the season got done, I saw everything more clearly, how I needed to get it done, and ever since the last putt dropped after the season, I’ve been working toward that, and it’s been building blocks every week until today and as will progress to next year.”
KAPALUA, HAWAII – JANUARY 05: Brendon Todd of the United States plays his shot from the 18th tee during the second round of The Sentry at Plantation Course at Kapalua Golf Club on January 05, 2024 in Kapalua, Hawaii. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Brendon Todd
Movement: No. 104 to No. 502 (-382.69%)
Why the fall? After qualifying for the FedExCup Playoffs last season, Todd logged just six starts this year. Following a missed cut at the Sony Open, he withdrew after two rounds of The American Express, then finished 78th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, last by five shots among players who completed all four rounds in the no-cut signature event. He didn’t beat a single player in each of his next two starts either, missing cuts at the WM Phoenix Open and Cognizant Classic. That’s when Todd, who had previously dealt with the full swing yips about seven to 10 years ago, broke from competitive golf for eight months. He did manage to win the club championship at Athens Country Club in October, but he didn’t return to the PGA Tour until the RSM Classic, where he also missed the weekend. Todd, now 40, hasn’t commented publicly on the source of his struggles, but he reportedly will have a major medical for 2026.
SOUTHAMPTON, BERMUDA – NOVEMBER 13: Adam Hadwin of Canada looks on from the 18th hole during the first round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship 2025 at Port Royal Golf Course on November 13, 2025 in Southampton, Bermuda. (Photo by Kenneth Richmond/Getty Images)
Adam Hadwin
Movement: No. 59 to No. 251 (-325.42%)
Why the fall? Hadwin’s 11th straight season on the PGA Tour was his worst, by far. He’d just finished No. 47 in the FedExCup the year prior, earning exemptions into every signature event this season. Even with the leg up, Hadwin mustered only three top-25s in 29 starts. His No. 136 points finish marked his lowest since his rookie year (No. 107). A two-time Presidents Cupper and winner of the 2017 Valspar, Hadwin had been a consistent performer for over a decade, but not being able to take his game to another level frustrated him and prompted swing changes with coach Mark Blackburn. But those changes never took hold, and Hadwin finished a career-worst 167th in strokes gained approach this season. He ended up back at Q-School earlier this month and failed to keep full status. He’ll have conditional status on both the PGA and Korn Ferry tours. Hadwin spoke with British Columbia Golf earlier this fall about the prospects of having to return to the minor leagues. “Oh yeah, I am not done,” Hadwin said. “I am still at a stage where I am going to give it my all until it’s not good enough. Obviously, you don’t want to go back down, especially after 11 years now, but hey, that’s golf, man, and if that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes.”
Complete movement
Here’s a look at the Official World Golf Ranking movement of every player in 2025 who started the year with world-ranking points.