Maverick McNealy of Stanford has taken the No. 1 spot in the World Golf Rankings, replacing Jon Rahm of Arizona State and Spain.
McNealy, a 19-year-old junior from Portola Valley, rose to the top spot a week after winning the Olympia Fields Country Club Illini Invitational near Chicago, finishing three strokes ahead of Thomas Detry of Illinois. Rahm was nine strokes back in a tie for ninth.
It was the seventh college title for McNealy, who won six times for the Cardinal last season en route to earning the Jack Nicklaus Award, the Haskins Award and the Division I Player of the Year Award.
McNealy is four short of the Stanford record of 11 career victories set by Tiger Woods and tied for Patrick Rodgers two years ago.
Ranked No. 1 in Golfweek’s 2015-16 college rankings, McNealy won the Northern California Golf Association Amateur Match Play Championship, finished second in the Pacific Coast Amateur, made the cut in the Greenbrier Classic and the Barbasol Championship on the PGA Tour and played in the Walker Cup.
Bryson DeChambeau of Clovis and SMU, the NCAA and U.S. Amateur champion, is No. 4 in the World Golf Rankings, and Beau Hossler of Rancho Santa Margarita and the University of Texas, who won the Western Amateur and the Southern California Amateur in 2014, is No. 9.
