Johnson poised to return to world No. 1 with Mexico win

Dustin Johnson is set to return to the top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking – just not yet.

Johnson cruised to a five-shot win at the WGC-Mexico Championship, his second win in the last three years in Mexico City. As a result he jumped from No. 4 to No. 2 in the latest rankings, with his point average (9.8659) barely behind world No. 1 Justin Rose at 9.8723.

But with both players skipping this week’s Honda Classic, Johnson is guaranteed to overtake Rose at No. 1 when the next set of rankings are published on March 4. It will be the first time Johnson has held the top spot since the Tour Championship in September.

Rory McIlroy’s runner-up finish to Johnson helped him move past Xander Schauffele and Jon Rahm to world No. 6, while a T-3 finish moved Paul Casey from 19th to 16th. That same result pushed Ian Poulter up four spots to No. 30, while Kiradech Aphibarnrat went from 45th to 36th with his share of third place.

After notching his first PGA Tour win at the Puerto Rico Open, Martin Trainer moved from No. 286 to No. 128 in the latest rankings.

Rose holds on to the top spot for one more week, now followed in order by Johnson, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau. McIlroy moved up to No. 6, with Schauffele, Rahm, Rickie Fowler and Francesco Molinari rounding out the top 10.

Following his T-10 finish in Mexico, Tiger Woods moved up one spot to No. 12 in the world, equaling his highest ranking since his return from back fusion surgery.