Rankings
Who's running hot right now: each player's recent scoring versus their own 12-month baseline. A score-based form metric computed from real round scores — unadjusted for field or difficulty.
Eligibility: at least 5 stroke-play events in the trailing 12 months. Methodology details on the methodology page.
How 'hot right now' form is calculated
This page ranks players by how they are scoring now against how they normally score. Each player's recent scoring average is compared with their own trailing twelve-month baseline, and the difference between the two is the number the table sorts on. A player who averages a stroke better than their own baseline sits at the top; a player scoring exactly to their usual standard sits near zero. You can switch the recent window between the last five and the last ten events, which trades responsiveness for stability — five reacts quickly to a hot fortnight, ten is harder to fool. Because the comparison is always against the player's own baseline rather than the field, an improving journeyman and an improving major winner can both rank highly.
Why this differs from the world ranking
The Official World Golf Ranking measures accumulated achievement: it rewards finishing well in strong fields and decays slowly, which is what makes it a fair basis for exemptions. This page measures something narrower and more perishable — whether a player is playing better than usual at this moment. The two disagree constantly, and that is the point. A world number one in an ordinary patch will rank unremarkably here, while a player ranked outside the top hundred can lead this table for a month. Neither ranking is wrong; they answer different questions. If you want position and pedigree, the world ranking is on the players index. If you want to know who is in form this week, this is the list.
What a 12-month baseline means
The baseline is the player's own scoring average across their stroke-play rounds in the trailing year. Measuring against it, rather than against the field, removes most of the noise that makes raw scoring averages hard to read: a player who plays easy courses looks good on raw average and ordinary against their own baseline, which is the more useful signal. A player needs at least five stroke-play events in the trailing twelve months to appear at all. Below that threshold a baseline is not a baseline, it is a rumour, so those players are left out rather than ranked on a sample too small to mean anything. Team and match-play results are excluded for the same reason — they do not produce comparable stroke-play scores.
Common questions
How is a golfer's current form calculated?
- By comparing their recent scoring average with their own trailing twelve-month baseline. The gap between the two is the ranking figure: better than their own baseline is positive, worse is negative. You can measure the recent window over the last five or last ten events.
Is this the same as the Official World Golf Ranking?
- No. The world ranking measures accumulated achievement over a long window and decays slowly. This page measures whether a player is currently scoring better than they usually do, which is a shorter-term and more volatile question. The two routinely disagree.
Why do some PGA Tour players not appear in the rankings?
- A player needs at least five stroke-play events in the trailing twelve months to qualify. Below that there are not enough rounds to build a meaningful personal baseline, so they are omitted rather than ranked on a sample too small to support the number.
Does the form ranking use strokes gained?
- No — it is computed from actual round scores rather than strokes-gained data, so it covers every player with enough stroke-play rounds, including those without ShotLink-measured statistics. Strokes-gained figures are shown on player profiles and the players index.
Sourcing is set out on the methodology page; every stat name is defined in the glossary.