Players Championship: Battle for world No 1 permutations
Wednesday 9 May 2018 20:16, UK
This week's Players Championship offers prize money of $1.98m to the winner but there are also plenty of world ranking points available in golf's 'fifth major'.
These points will have a massive bearing on who emerges as world No 1 on Monday with five men in contention to top the pile.
Dustin Johnson will tee off at TPC Sawgrass as world No 1 but he holds only a slender advantage over Justin Thomas, while Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth and Justin Rose are also in with a chance of dethroning Johnson.
The Players Championship offers 80 world ranking points to the winner, 48 to the runner-up and 32 to the third-placed player, with declining values all the way down to 1.2 points for 60th place.
These points will have a major effect on a player's average points total - which determines their ranking - and there are therefore a large number of different scenarios that could play out this week in the battle for the No 1 position.
The simplest of these are that if either Thomas, who has the best overall chance to become No 1, or Johnson win The Players Championship then they are guaranteed top spot, otherwise the performances of the other challengers can prevent it.
Johnson will also hang on to the leading ranking if he finishes second and Thomas does not win, and then there are a range of possible scenarios if Johnson finishes anywhere else in the top 11 - his minimum requirement - which can be seen in the table below:
The permutations for Rahm are simpler with only two possible ways that the Spaniard can become No 1 at the age of just 23.
The first of these is for him to win and Thomas to finish worse than in a two-way tie for second as well as Johnson finishing worse than solo second.
The second scenario is if Rahm finishes in sole possession of second, Thomas comes outside the top 26, Johnson finishes worse than solo seventh and Spieth fails to win.
Spieth has already been world No 1 for 26 weeks and there are also two scenarios which would see him back in that position.
Firstly he needs to win and for Thomas to finish worse than in a three-way tie for second and Johnson to end up worse than in a two-way tie for the runners-up spot.
Secondly if he comes a solo second with Thomas outside the top 60, or missing the cut, along with Johnson finishing lower than in a two-way tie for 11th and Rahm or Rose not winning.
Rose also has a slim chance of snatching the No 1 spot but there is only one way in which this can happen.
The Englishman needs to win at TPC Sawgrass with Thomas finishing outside the top 46 and Johnson outside the top nine, along with Rahm ending up worse than solo second place.
