All-time ranking: Who moved up in 2020?
By Bill Felber
Brooks Koepka, -17.60
Between 2017 and 2019, Koepka rocketed up the career list on the strength of four Major victories in a seven-event span. He began 2020 with a rating of -16.24, good for 39th place all time.
Koepka’s 2020 season contained no additional Major titles. In fact he took part in only two events, ongoing health problems forcing him out of the U.S. Open. At the Masters, he staged a hopeful return that wound up in a tie for seventh, although 10 strokes behind Johnson.
His PGA showing was decent until those chronic lower-body issues sabotaged his play Sunday. Koepka tied for 29th.
His Masters showing enabled Koepka to make a modest move upward on the career list, from -16.24 to -17.60. That shuffled him ahead of Tom Watson and Walter Travis into 36th place. But it also slowed the curve of his movement.
Were he to repeat his modestly favorable 2020 showing in 2021, Koepka would gain another three places on the list, finishing 2021 at -18.96, good for 33rd position. In the process he would have stepped ahead of Tommy Armour, Mike Brady and Henry Picard.
But that would be a sharp step down from the pace Koepka appeared to be on when he won those four Majors. In 2019 alone, Koepka added -8.4 points to his rating and jumped 35 positions on the all-time list. Like McIlroy, Koepka, 30, is young enough to resume that pace. The difference is that he now has DeChambeau and Johnson to battle.