My Five: Least Dominant No. 1 Players

Golf Digest Senior Writer Jaime Diaz looks back at five No. 1s who weren't total world-beaters

By Jaime Diaz

When Lee Westwood this week became the 13th player to assume the No. 1 position on the Official World Golf Ranking, it felt as if the crown so long worn by Tiger Woods had been relinquished more than seized. Though a consistent performer, Westwood has yet to win a major championship and has only five victories anywhere in the last seven years -- four on the European Tour and one in America. Not including Westwood, here are my five least dominant No. 1s since the Official World Golf Ranking was started in 1986.

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1. Tom Lehman

A great ball striker perennially among the leaders in greens in regulation, but whose mediocre putter kept him from winning more than five times on the PGA Tour, Lehman had his best year in 1996. He won the British Open and the Tour Championship, led the U.S. Open after 54 holes before losing on the 72nd to Steve Jones, and earned PGA Tour Player of the Year honors. But in late 1996, Tiger Woods turned pro and immediately supplied a vivid preview of what was to come. Woods started 1997 by beating Lehman in sudden death at the 1997 Mercedes Championship, and four months later, he won by 12 at Augusta. But newbie pro Woods still didn't have enough points, and after the Masters it was Lehman who became No. 1, though only for a week, when he was succeeded by Greg Norman.

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