Two weeks ago, Lexi Thompson celebrated her 21st birthday in South Florida, a passing of time that is hard to fathom since the golf world got its first glimpse of Lexi at age 12 when she became the youngest qualifier for the 2007 U.S. Women’s Open.
This week, Thompson is back in action at the Honda LPGA Thailand, with a chance to become the top-ranked American in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings. Calculations reveal that if Thompson, ranked fourth in the world, wins and No. 3 Stacy Lewis, the top American for 195 consecutive weeks, finishes in a tie for second or worse then Thompson would become only the sixth different player to claim “best American” over the past decade. Thompson can also finish second alone and move up, but that is dependent on Lewis’ finish.
Last weekend marked the 10th anniversary of the formation of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, establishing a global view of the best golfers in the world and marking a method to determine the fields for this summer’s return of golf to the Olympic Games and the second playing of the UL International Crown competition.
The Rolex Rankings also give American golf fans a way to track who the top-ranked Yank is in the weekly distribution, which comes out each Monday. Since the Feb. 21, 2006 debut, only two Americans have been No. 1 overall – Cristie Kerr and Stacy Lewis. Lewis has the most weeks of any American in the No. 1 slot (25) while Kerr has spent the most time as the top dog among American players (218). The No. 1 players in the world, in order, have included Annika Sörenstam, Lorena Ochoa, Ai Miyazato, Kerr, Jiyai Shin, Yani Tseng, Lewis, Inbee Park and current No. 1 Lydia Ko.
Thompson has made a concerted effort to improve different facets of her game to rise in the rankings. Last year, she led the LPGA in Greens at Regulation at 77 percent, providing a lethal combination with her length (averaging 290.44 yards in Driving Distance this year, ranked first).
“I do believe that if my short game improves more that that'll get me towards the top even more,” Thompson said at the end of 2015. “But I have three spectacular players in front of me, and it’s going to be tough to catch them, but I’m just going to take one tournament at a time. I definitely need to win a few more times to get up there, but I’m just going to take it one shot at a time. I have my own small goals that I want to accomplish and improving my short game even more is definitely one of my top goals this offseason.”
Here are the top-ranked Americans over the past decade:
| Player | # Weeks |
Noteworthy |
| Michelle Wie |
17 |
Wie was No. 2 in the world 10 years ago this week at age 16 |
| Paula Creamer |
86 |
Creamer was the top American for 72 consecutive weeks late 2007-early 2009 |
| Cristie Kerr |
218 |
Most times as top-ranked American; first to No. 1 for 6 weeks (non-consecutive) in 2010 |
| Morgan Pressel |
6 |
Became top American with victory at 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship |
| Stacy Lewis |
195 |
Became top American with ShopRite win on June 3, 2012; has been No. 1 in world 25 times |
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