[Golf Topic] McIlroy "100 Weeks as World No. 1"..."Woods, Norman Follow as 3rd All-Time"

[Asia Economy Kim Hyun-jun, Golf Specialist Reporter] ○…'Third longest in history.'

Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland, photo) has spent the third longest period as world No. 1. On the afternoon of the 9th (Korean time), he earned 9.42 points in the officially announced weekly golf world rankings, reaching a total of 100 weeks at No. 1. Earlier that morning, he finished tied for 5th place on the final day of the Arnold Palmer Invitational (total prize money $9.3 million) at Bay Hill Golf Club in Orlando, Florida (par 72, 7,454 yards), adding more points. He holds a comfortable 0.81-point lead over second-place Jon Rahm (Spain, 8.61 points).

He ranks third all-time behind 'The Returned Golf Emperor' Tiger Woods (USA) with 683 weeks and 'The Great White Shark' Greg Norman (Australia) with 331 weeks. McIlroy swept three wins last year and secured an early victory at the HSBC Champions, part of the 2020 World Golf Championships (WGC) series in October. Remarkably, in the previous six tournaments, he finished in the top 5 every time, including two 3rd-place and three 5th-place finishes. He will defend his title at The Players Championship (total prize money $15 million), known as the 'fifth major,' which opens on the night of the 12th.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.