All-time ranking: Who moved up in 2020?
By Bill Felber
Dustin Johnson, -8.23
With strong performances in all three Majors, including his Masters victory, Johnson made the biggest positive move up the all-time ranking of any active PGA Tour player.
He entered 2020 with a dominance rating of -2.30, ranking 91st among men all-time. In 2020, Johnson embellished his standing by 5.93 points, leaping 20 of the game’s greats to finish 71st.
Among those he leapfrogged: Major champions Craig Wood, Horton Smith, Craig Wood, Jordan Spieth, Cary Middlecoff, Gene Littler and Jamie Anderson.
Among the 10 immediately in front of him are some of golf’s true immortals: Old Tom Morris, Young Tom Morris and Jimmy Demaret.
If Johnson replicates his 2020 performance in 2021 – a big ‘if,’ by the way — he would jump another 27 positions and rank 44th all-time. That would put him on a par with such names as Phil Mickelson, Peter Thomson and Tom Watson.
Johnson is also the only active pro who made a significant move on the all-time peak rating, a calculation confined to a player’s best five consecutive seasons. He began the year with a peak rating of -1.64, tying him for 39th place with Lee Trevino and Doug Ford. He closed 2020 with a peak rating of -1.78. That left him in 22nd place just ahead of Seve Ballesteros and J.H. Taylor, and hot on the heels of Cary Middlecoff and Jim Barnes.
If Johnson replicates his 2020 season in 2021, he would jump Middlecoff, Barnes, Jock Hutchison and Tom Weiskopf and stand 18th among the game’s greats for peak performance.