McIlroy to return to world number one

Rory McIlroy will replace Brooks Koepka as world number one despite not playing this week.

The four-time major winner from Northern Ireland will leapfrog Koepka when the rankings are updated following this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-AM.

Koepka and world number three Jon Rahm are also missing the event and the two-year rolling format of the ranking system will see McIlroy go top.

The complicated nature of the ranking system will push the 30-year-old up from 0.2 points behind Keopka to three-hundredths of a point in front. McIlroy said last month that returning to world number one would ‘take care of itself’.

He added: “It’s all about the process, it’s all about the game, it’s all about trying to make improvements. If I do that and I achieve those goals, then hopefully inevitably I get to that position. It’s a by-product of playing consistently good golf and I’ve been doing that for a while now.”