Only twice since the inception of the World Golf Rankings in 1986 have more than two players held the No. 1 spot in the same season.
In that first year, Bernhard Langer started out atop the list but was unseated after three weeks by Seve Ballesteros, who in turn lost the top spot to Greg Norman, who then held it for 61 weeks.
In 1997, Norman, Tom Lehman, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els all were atop the heap during one of the most exciting seasons in golf history, with the top spot changing hands seven times.
Lee Westwood started this season at No. 1 after taking over from the struggling Woods late last year, and he recently regained the lofty perch from Martin Kaymer by claiming two victories in Asia.
But Westwood has been unable to pull decisively away, in part because those titles came against good-but-not-great fields, and also because so many golfers are playing well right now.
And since the Englishman has decided not to play this week in The Players Championship, all of those chasing him can gain ground by winning or at least finishing among the leaders.
"We're going to see a lot of jostling for the No. 1 ranking," said Nick Faldo, who held the No. 1 ranking for a total of 98 weeks during his career. "There are about four or five guys in the hunt.
"You've got Luke Donald, (Graeme) McDowell and even Phil Mickelson."
So who's next?
It might be Donald, who captured the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship with a dominating performance earlier this season and was later virtually one shot away from taking the No. 1 spot before losing in a playoff to Brandt Snedeker three weeks ago in The Heritage.
NBC analyst Johnny Miller said earlier this year that Donald, whose short game is among the best, could be the best player in the world if he drove the ball straighter, and Donald has improved off the tee this season.
But falling short at Harbour Town to Snedeker has led to Donald downplaying the importance of reaching the pinnacle in recent interviews.
"It's hard not to put (being No. 1) out of your mind because there was a lot of talk about it," said Donald, who is No. 3 in the rankings. "It's certainly not a goal of mine.
"I think the goal for me is continually going through the steps to try to become a better player. When you do that, good things happen like they have this year."
Donald is playing about as well as anyone in the world after intentionally getting off to a late start this year, teeing off 2011 at the Northern Trust Open in the second week of February.
After playing into December last year, as golf has evolved into a year-round schedule in recent years, he felt he needed a long break before starting over, and it seems to have paid off with perhaps the best streak of his career.
It didn't start out that way when he missed the cut at Riviera, but since then he has reeled off six consecutive top-10 finishes.
"I'm playing well, I'm swinging well," said Donald, who leads the PGA Tour in adjusted scoring average at 69.08 and is No. 1 on the money list with $2,926,867. "I'm doing a lot of things well.
"I've really had a solid start to the year, been doing a lot of things right, and I've been putting in a lot of hard work."
Westwood is having to deal with the fact that he is the only one of the 14 players to be No. 1 in the World Golf Rankings who never has claimed a major championship.
Should Donald ascend to the top, he would hear not only that complaint, but also the charge that has dogged him throughout his career — that he does not win enough. He has only seven total victories as a pro.
His victory in the Accenture was his first on the PGA Tour since the 2006 Honda Classic.
"Luke Donald is one of the finest, definitely one of the most consistent players on tour right now," Faldo said.
Consistent is good and Westwood has shown that will get you to No. 1, but he also has 35 victories over the course of his career.
Donald hopes he is trending in that direction. He also won the 2010 Madrid Masters on the European Tour and has victories in consecutive years for the first time in his career.
Woods, who has slipped to No. 8 but has held the top ranking for a record 623 weeks since 1997, said he never worried about it and was concerned only with winning.
That's the best way to take care of No. 1.
