Johnson confirms return to golf’s world number one

Dustin Johnson officially regained the world number one ranking from Justin Rose on Monday following his triumph at the WGC-Mexico Championship a week ago.

The American cruised to a five-shot win in Mexico City at the end of February to make it 12 straight years that he has won at least one US PGA tour event.

The 34-year-old replaces Englishman Rose by the narrowest of margins — 0.0008 average points — in top spot, a position he has held for 81 weeks in his career.

Neither player was active this past week as both skipped the Honda Classic in Florida, allowing Johnson to return to number one for the first time since the Tour Championship in September.

Brooks Koepka traded places with Justin Thomas as the former moved up to third, while Rickie Fowler jumped to seventh as he climbed above Xander Schauffele and Jon Rahm.

World top 20

1. Dustin Johnson (USA) 9.92 average pts (+1)

2. Justin Rose (ENG) 9.92 (-1)

3. Brooks Koepka (USA) 9.07 (+1)

4. Justin Thomas (USA) 8.58 (-1)

5. Bryson DeChambeau (USA) 7.54

6. Rory McIlroy (NIR) 6.73

7. Rickie Fowler (USA) 6.31 (+2)

8. Xander Schauffele (USA) 6.22 (-1)

9. Jon Rahm (ESP) 6.12 (-1)

10. Francesco Molinari (ITA) 5.60

11. Jason Day (AUS) 5.31

12. Tiger Woods (USA) 5.19

13. Tony Finau (USA) 5.15

14. Tommy Fleetwood (ENG) 4.78

15. Paul Casey (ENG) 4.72 (+1)

16. Patrick Reed (USA) 4.70 (-1)

17. Bubba Watson (USA) 4.43 (+2)

18. Marc Leishman (AUS) 4.41 (-1)

19. Patrick Cantlay (USA) 4.35 (-1)

20. Phil Mickelson (USA) 4.31