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2019 doesn’t look like it will be much different than 2018 when it comes to uncertainty at World No. 1

December 31, 2018
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It’s been five weeks since there has been a new World No. 1, an eternity given the recent trend of the top spot of the Official World Golf Ranking changing hands a record-setting nine times among a record-tying four players in 2018. Yet if the new year might bring a little more continuity, it won’t necessarily happen come the first week when the PGA Tour resumes play in Hawaii at the Sentry Tournament of Champions.

Justin Rose isn’t competing this week in Maui, and Brooks Koepka, the current No. 1, has his work cut out for him if he wants to retain this spot. Last year, Koepka finished last in the 34-player field at Kapalua, although he was dealing with a wrist injury at the time, and the tournament wound up being the last he would play for more than three months. His one other start in the Tournament of Champions, however, was more to his liking: a T-3 in 2016.

Rose had the chance to knock off Koepka twice in the last month but fell one stroke short of passing him at the Hero World Challenge and the Indonesian Masters.