– Robert MacIntyre took at least one piece of good news last Sunday in Baltimore despite losing the BMW Championship to Scottie Scheffler, as his second place in the second play-off of the Fedex Cup put him into the world top ten for the first time in his career (he is the new World Number 8). It may not be much consolation, but it’s not only a minor issue, it’s almost a feat, beyond the borders of the United States.
– The Scot, in fact, is the 126th player in the history of the world ranking to reach this exclusive top ten level. Only 126 players in forty years of history (1986-2025). And of those 126, only three Scots (Lyle, Montgomerie, and MacIntyre).
– Scottish golf, then, is celebrating, because it hadn’t placed a player in the world top ten since Colin Montgomerie did so on 15 May 1994. More than 31 years had passed.
– The year 2025 is proving to be a good harvest and it’s not over yet. In 2025, six new players have reached the world top ten: Russell Henley, Maverick McNealy, Sepp Straka, Shane Lowry, J.J. Spaun, and Robert MacIntyre. This hasn’t happened since 2011, a year when six new names also joined this exclusive club, take note of the names: Bubba Watson, Charl Schwartzel, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Nick Watney, and Webb Simpson.
– Only in 1986 and 1987 did more than six new players enter the world top ten. The 1986 figure (14) is obvious, as it was the first year of the ranking’s history. And in 1987 there was also a lot of novelty (7), before it stabilised. It’s worth considering that the average is just over three new players per year (3.15). In 2024, for instance, only one new player entered: Ludvig Aberg.
– The year 1993 remains the only year in the history of the world ranking in which no new player entered the top ten for the first time.
– The United States, of course, is the country that has placed the most players in the world top ten to date. With Spaun, the latest to arrive this year, they now total 64, more than half of the total 126.
– Next comes England, with eleven players. The latest of them was Matt Fitzpatrick, who reached the world top ten for the first time in June 2022. Then Australia (9), with Cameron Smith in January 2022 being the last to arrive; and South Africa (7), although it’s been a long time since the last South African entered: it was Branden Grace in February 2016, more than nine years ago. Sweden (5), Spain (4), and Japan (4) complete the list of countries with the most presence. It’s worth noting that the four Spaniards who reached this level were Seve, Chema, Sergio, and Jon. Not even Jiménez could achieve it (World Number 12 was his peak), which gives us another idea of how incredibly difficult it is to reach and that, indeed, it’s not a minor issue. Just ask Scottish golf… Or Spanish golf.
