Shriners Open Recap: DeChambeau Climbs to No. 5

On the one hand, there's the official No. 1 player in the world, Justin Rose. On the other, there's a golfer some observers see as the unofficial No. 1, Bryson DeChambeau.

Rose won the Turkish Airlines Open in a playoff to reclaim the top spot from idle Brooks Koepka, while later on Sunday DeChambeau won the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open to move to No. 5 in the OWGR. For DeChambeau, it was his third title in five starts and fourth in five months.

The bigger win belongs to Rose, as it came at the start of the three-event European Tour Finals. The 38-year-old Englishman fought a gallant Haotong Li down the stretch in Antalya, Turkey, and won when the Chinese golfer 15 years his junior missed a 2 ½-footer for par on the first playoff hole.

Going back a year and two weeks, when his run of prosperity took off, Rose has five wins and eight additional top-fives.

Rose thus returns to the top spot that he held for two weeks last month. We still don't know whether he's done enough to end the year as No. 1 in the world, which has no added importance but still is viewed as an honor by the golfers. It likely depends on whether Koepka takes part (and does well) in the Hero World Challenge, Tiger Woods' 18-man invitational in Bahamas the week after Thanksgiving.

"The fun thing is, I still feel like there's improvement to be had and that's what I'm looking for," Rose said after the win, according to the European Tour's website. "I'm really looking forward to the offseason to still work at a few things and still get better. I think that's the exciting part, at 38, I still feel like there is improvement to be achieved.

"More Majors, that's what I'm interested in, trying to chase down as many as I can."

Four golfers have taken turns as No. 1 during 2018, a scenario not seen since 1997, when Greg Norman, Tom Lehman, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els played musical chairs. This year, Dustin Johnson has been on top the most, but Rose, Koepka and Justin Thomas have all had a share.

Those four are so tightly bunched it wouldn't surprise if they kept trading places well into 2019. That is, unless someone else joins the equation. Which brings us to the Shriners tournament in Las Vegas.

DeChambeau holed an incredible 57-foot, 7-inch eagle "putt" on the 16th hole on Sunday to wrest the lead from Patrick Cantlay, then parred out to win in his 2018-19 season debut. We put "putt" in quotation marks because it was not officially a putt, since it came from off the green. Just like DeChambeau is not officially No. 1.

The 25-year-old has quickly gone from PGA Tour novelty act ("The Mad Scientist") to a fierce finisher who has now overtaken Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, to throw out some boldface names, in the world rankings.

Is it only a matter of time before he overtakes four more?

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Patrick Cantlay
Cantlay surely was impressive in attempting to defend his Shriners title. We really didn't think he had a chance, what with the long flight(s) from China the week before and the associated jet lag. But he not only was in contention but was in the lead until an ugly, and deciding, flub from a greenside bunker on 17 led to a bogey. Cantlay birdied 18, but that ultimately left him one shot back alone in second. You can break down the tournament any way you want, but Cantlay was 1-for-7 in sand saves on the week. You do the math. Regardless, Cantlay is up to a career-best No. 18 in the world. And now that he's handled the China-to-Vegas connection with aplomb, we won't doubt him next year.

Sam Ryder
Ryder shot a career-best 9-under 62 on Sunday to zoom into solo third, his best showing ever on the PGA Tour. Ryder arrived from the Web.com Tour a year ago with laser-like irons and a decent all-around game – except for putting. He kept his card, but his trouble on the greens was apparent. Fast forward to this season, and Ryder has a tie for fourth at the Safeway to go along with his Shriners showing. In both tournaments, he putted exceptionally (eighth in putting average at TPC Summerlin). If Ryder can maintain that, the rest of his game is solid enough for him to make some noise.

Rickie Fowler
Stop us if you've heard this before: Fowler came close. He shot an 8-under 63 on Sunday to climb the leaderboard, with six birdies on the back nine alone. DeChambeau now has more career wins than Fowler (5 to 4). Maybe Fowler doesn't have the killer instinct, maybe his desire to make a big impact for the game of golf off the course (certainly an admirable goal) prevents him from doing more on the course. You'd think with all the times he's been close he'd have more wins just by being there.

Jordan Spieth
Stop us if you've heard this before: Spieth didn't come close. Only this time, in his season debut, it wasn't his putting. Spieth ranked 18th in the Shriners field in strokes gained: putting, but he was a head-scratching 68th in strokes gained: tee to green and 62nd in strokes gained: around the green. Instead of making a charge on the weekend, Spieth shot 1-over on the final 36 holes to tumble into a tie for 55th. On Sunday, he carded four bogeys on the front and a double on the back. Oy, Spieth has now fallen to 14th in the world. Let's see what happens this week, when he heads to Mexico for the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

Abraham Ancer
Ancer was part of the tie for fourth with Fowler, equaling his best finish on the PGA Tour and moving him inside the top-100 for the first time (98th OWGR). While this was Ancer's co-best showing, he's no stranger to top-10s, now with an impressive seven of them in only 53 career starts. He had another one a few weeks back in Malaysia. Ancer now heads back to Mayakoba, where he first came on the fantasy radar a year ago with a tie for ninth.

Lucas Glover
Glover has been through a lot off the course this year, so it was improbable for him to be in contention deep into Sunday. A 10-under 61 on Saturday will help, though. Unfortunately, Glover closed the tournament with a triple-bogey 7 to fall into a tie for seventh – still great, but we can see how Glover might disagree. What we learned about Glover in Vegas was that his iron play is still good enough for him to contend. He was tied for seventh in green in regulation and was 13th in strokes gained: tee to green.

Cameron Champ
Champ tied for 28th a week after his maiden PGA Tour win. Just making the cut would've been good. But Champ was tied for sixth entering the final round, only to shoot a 2-over 73 to tumble down the leaderboard. Just days after a life-altering moment, one that was accompanied by an incredible amount of cash, well, it's enough to make a young player, or any player, lose focus for a while. But that didn't happen to Champ, and that bodes well for his future.

Haotong Li
Li has won a big tournament before, when he stared down Rory McIlroy to win in Dubai back in January. He then became the perfect example of a young guy regressed after such a big moment, falling from a career-best 32nd in the OWGR to 50th. His terrific showing in Turkey has lifted him to 42nd and has ensured that he'll be in the top-50 at year's end. That will get him a return ticket into the Masters.

Lucas Bjerregaard
The rising Dane did not fare well alongside stronger competition at the WGC event in China last week. But back in a European Tour event, and not an overly strong one even though it was the playoffs, Bjerregaard tied for fifth (with Martin Kaymer). That moved him to 51st in the world, with a real chance to crack the top-50 by year's end, which would begin to open up some real opportunities for the 27-year-old. Bjerregaard will tee it up again this week in the penultimate event on the Euro Tour calendar, the Nedbank Golf Challenge hosted by Gary Player in South Africa.