Dustin Johnson 

American Dustin Johnson is the world’s top gold player according to the official world ranking as of August 2020 by average points. Johnson had an average of 9.96 points.

He was followed in second place by Jon Rahm of Spain with an average of 9.87 points. Another American is in the third spot, Justin Thomas with 8.34 average points.

Dustin Hunter Johnson, who was born on 22 June 1984 is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. 

In 2016, he won the US Open with a 4-under-par score of 276 to win his first major championship. However, five years earlier in 2011, he had finished in a tie for second place at the 2011 Open Championship and then later at the 2015 US Open.

The top-ranked player Johnson also has a remarkable record of achievements with six World Golf Championship wins, one title behind the legendary Tiger Woods. Woods is also the only player to win each of the four World Golf Championship events. 

Johnson’s wins so far and in his 2020 Travelers Championship make him the third player in the history of the Tour to claim a tour title in each of his 13 seasons, joining Jack Nicklaus (17) and Tiger Woods (14).

Johnson claimed the world number one ranking in February 2017, where he remained on the top of the rankings for 64 consecutive weeks, giving him the fifth longest run as number one. After briefly falling from number one, he regained his supremacy and attained the number one position again for almost three years in 2018, 2019, and now 2020, where he has been at number one for a total of 99 weeks.

Surprisingly, earlier this year, exactly on 2 March, Johnson's fans and sport’s officials were stunned when the player’s agent announced that he would not be competing in the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo due to his schedule. That was before the suspension of sports all over the world and the postponement of the Olympic Games to 2021.

In June, Johnson won the Travelers Championship with a score of 19-under-par after a tough competition with Brendon Todd in the final round. 

In August, Johnson held the 54-hole lead at the 2020 PGA Championship before finishing in a tie for second place, two strokes behind the eventual winner Collin Morikawa.  Two weeks later, Johnson won the Northern Trust at TPC Boston, Massachusetts by 11 strokes with a score of 30-under-par, during which he set a new career low round with an 11-under-par 60 in the second round. The win, at the first tournament of the 2020 FEDEX Cup Playoffs, relocated him into first place in the season long points’ standings, which also brought him back to the number one slot in the Official World Golf Ranking. 

On 7 September, Johnson won the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia and the $15 million FEDEX Cup, after which he was voted the 2020 PGA Tour Player of the Year for the second time in his career.

Unfortunately, October brought sad news not only for Johnson but also to sport’s officials and fans. The number one ranked player has withdrawn from the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas after testing positive for COVID-19. He became the second player in consecutive weeks to test positive for COVID-19 and is the 15th player who the tour has announced as having tested positive. Prior to Finau, two players tested positive at the U.S. Open, but there had been a six-week stretch of no positive cases before that.

Johnson, a 23-time PGA Tour winner, revealed to the media that he was very disappointed because he was looking forward to competing at the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas saying, “I will do everything I can to return as quickly as possible. I have already had a few calls with the tour's medical team and appreciate all the support and guidance they have given me.”

Johnson has not played since he tied for sixth at the U.S. Open in September, but there is hope he could play at the Houston Open the week before the Masters, from 12 to 15 November.

Johnson has been one of the most consistent players in the game of late, tying for sixth in his last start at the U.S. Open, winning the Tour Championship, finishing second at the BMW Championship, winning the Northern Trust, and tying for second at the PGA Championship. He will be among the favorites at the Masters in November. 

Ko Jin-young 

Ko Jin-young is the world’s top female golf player. The South Korean professional golfer is also known as Jin Young Ko. She plays on the LPGA Tour.

By the age of 22, she had won 10 times on the LPGA of Korea Tour, was second at the 2015 Ricoh Women’s British Open, and had won the 2017 LPGA KEB Hana Bank Championship.

Having become a member of the LPGA Tour for the 2018 season, she won her opening tournament in February—the IPS Handa Women’s Australian Open—becoming the second player in the history of the LPGA to win her first tournament as a tour member.

The 25-year old had a successful and rewarding year in 2018 with 13 top-10 finishes out of 25 tournaments played that year for which she was named the LPGA Rookie of the Year. Jin-young then wrapped up the 2018 season as the 10th-ranked female player in the world.

The following year, 2019, was also impressive as she claimed her first two LPGA major championships at the ANA Inspiration and the Evian Championship. Jin-young then completed the 2019 season with the official money title of $2,773,894, the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average (69.06), and was named the LPGA Player of the Year as well as the number one top ranked player in the world.  

The world number one, Young Ko, has yet to compete on the 2020 LPGA this year, and it was confirmed that she will make her first start in the new Pelican Women’s Championship in Belle Air, Florida in late November. She’ll also play in the Volunteers of America Classic outside of Dallas, Texas and the U.S. Women’s Open in Houston, Texas.

It’s possible that Ko could earn enough points to qualify for the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship. If not, there are two sponsor exemptions on the table.

Ko carded a 66 in the second round of the Autech Carrier Championship in South Korea and currently sits one shot off the lead. She’ll compete in two more evens on the Korean LPGA before heading over to the US.

Last year Ko swept the postseason awards on the LPGA after winning four times, including two majors. She won the LPGA Player of the Year Award, Vare Trophy for low scoring average (69.062), money title ($2,773,894), Annika Major Award, and finished the season number one in the world.

The 25-year-old was a rookie on the LPGA in 2018 and has six career titles and 27 top-10s. She led the tour in greens in regulation last year and went 114 consecutive holes without making a bogey, breaking a record held by Tiger Woods.