By Alex Myers
Rory McIlroy still has to wait six months to resume his chase for a long-awaited fifth major title. In the meantime, he could find himself in a familiar position atop the Official World Golf Ranking this week. If a couple things break his way, that is.

The World No. 2 could get back to No. 1 by Monday based on how things play out at the PGA Tour’s CJ Cup. According to OWGR guru Nosferatu, there are two scenarios that would cause this to happen.

The first is McIlroy winning and current World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler finishing worse than a two-way tie for second place. The second is McIlroy finishing solo second and Scheffler finishing worse than solo 34th.

Obviously, McIlroy would prefer the first option and there’s plenty of reason to believe he can get it done in South Carolina. McIlroy won his most recent PGA Tour start at the Tour Championship to claim the FedEx Cup for a record third time. And starting with a runner-up at the Masters, the 33-year-old has nine top fives in 14 worldwide starts.

McIlroy has spent eight different stints at World No. 1 for a total of 106 weeks. He was most recently there as of July 2020 when Jon Rahm took the top spot. Scheffler has been No. 1 for 30 consecutive weeks beginning this March.

Congaree Golf Club is hosting this week’s CJ Cup for the first time. McIlroy is a favourite against a strong field. Rahm has the second-best odds, followed by Scheffler.

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