It’s Wednesday, and like every Wednesday, the World Amateur Ranking and the PGA Tour University are updated. Good news for Josele Ballester. As we reported in Ten Golf at the conclusion of the Mexico Open, the golfer from Castellón has made a significant leap in both rankings, more qualitative than quantitative because he was already ranked very high.
In the world ranking, he has moved up one spot to third place. It is the best position of his career. He has surpassed American Benjamin James and remains the only non-American player in the world top 10. Additionally, speaking of this ranking, Pablo Ereño has also gained a position and is now thirteenth. This is also his best-ever ranking and, moreover, he is the next non-American on the list. Ereño has achieved two top 6 finishes in the three tournaments he has played so far in 2025 in the NCAA.
More important is the rise in the PGA Tour University. Ballester has moved up to second, hot on the heels of Number One, David Ford. They are separated by just five points. It could even be that the overtaking happens in the next university tournament in Los Cabos. It will obviously depend on the performance of both. Meanwhile, Ereño has gained a spot in this ranking and is now eleventh, hot on the heels of his teammate at UCLA, Mexican Omar Morales.
The Number One in the world ranking is Luke Clanton, a player from the University of Florida who is in his third year in the NCAA. He is the main protagonist this week at the Cognizant Classic of the PGA Tour (playing with an invitation) which starts this Thursday at the PGA National. The reason is that he has 19 points in the PGA Tour University Accelerated and needs just one more to secure the American tour card. To achieve that point, he needs to make the cut this week.
He has made it clear, however, that he will not turn professional and join the PGA Tour until the NCAA Nationals are over. His goal is to win the title with Florida. This reduces Josele’s chances of being Number One in the world at some point, as Clanton has a significant lead, but it could still happen because there are many points at stake.
Clanton, 21, already had this opportunity at the Phoenix Open but missed the cut. Now he can do it at home, near his people, with his family around. He does not hide the excitement it would bring him, but at the same time, he shows enormous maturity in analysing the situation. “It would mean a lot to me. Doing it here would be incredible. An incredible journey, you could say. But we don’t know if it’s my time yet. My time will come, and we don’t know if it’s this week or next or when it will be. I’m going to trust in the Lord and know that this is golf. It will happen or not, we’ll see. Jason (his caddie) and I have always talked about it. It would be a perfect story, but we have to focus on what we have to do. We’re not going to go too far. We’re not going to worry about who’s coming or what we’re going to do. We’re just going to go out there and play the best we can,” he explains.
In this regard, Clanton already sounds like a professional. “I’m going to be boring once again, but I’m just thinking about going shot by shot. At the Waste Management, I got a little ahead of myself on the first day and had to do something incredible in the last eight holes. The goal is to stay focused in my bubble and stick to my game plan. I would love for it to be this week with all the friends and family, but I’m going to focus on going shot by shot,” he says.
Clanton has played the PGA National more than forty times. He knows it well and knows it’s tough. He has a clear plan. “If you don’t hit the fairway, you’re screwed, to be honest. If it’s windy here, it gets difficult. If there’s no wind, then if you drive well, you can play well. You have to be smart. Don’t force anything. Don’t try to force any shot. Go out and play good golf. You need to have a good game plan and stick to it.”
Clanton, who likes to talk about basketball to maintain concentration in competition, admits he felt the pressure at the Phoenix Open. “I had never played in front of a crowd like that before. At the beginning of the week, it seemed a bit stressful, but once we got to Thursday, it was amazing to play with Justin Thomas and then with my good friend Nick Dunlap. It didn’t go well for me that week, and you can see it as a failure, but I see it as a learning experience. I’m going to try to stay in the moment as much as I can. I think pressure is a privilege. In fact, I prefer to call it excitement rather than pressure. If you feel it, it’s because you’ve put yourself in that position, and you should be proud and excited. I’m not going to think about making the cut, but about competing for the tournament.”
