Stacy Lewis looks like she will lose her No. 1 spot in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings this weekend, and she isn’t even playing the Blue Bay LPGA in China.
Inbee Park is poised to take back the top spot when the newest rankings are released on Monday, even if she misses the cut in the Korean LPGA event she’s playing this week.
That’s what they’re projecting at LPGA headquarters.
If Park does, in fact, move back to No. 1, it will mark the second time Lewis has lost the top ranking to Park in a week when Lewis wasn’t even playing. Such are the vagaries of the world rankings, where changes in divisors can rock worlds.
Lewis and Park have taken turns reigning as No. 1 over the last year and a half. Lewis took the No. 1 ranking from Yani Tseng on March 25 of 2013 and held it for four weeks before Park seized it on April 15 of that year. Park took the top ranking from Lewis during an off week when Park’s divisor favorably changed, bumping her average world ranking ahead of Lewis. Park proved worthy, nonetheless, reigning at No. 1 for 59 weeks before Lewis took it back again on June 2 of this year, after Lewis won the ShopRite Classic.
Lewis and Park entered this week within six thousandths of a point of each other in the world rankings. Park is at 11.038 average world ranking points with Lewis at 11.044. Park’s divisor is changing with an event dropping out of the two-year rolling window used to calculate averages.
In case you’re wondering, Rolex world No. 3 Lydia Ko can’t take the No. 1 spot this week in China, even if she wins. Ko is the highest ranked player in the field on Hainan Island.
