Justin Thomas, Alex Noren made biggest leap in golf rankings over last year

Here's a look at who rose and fell in the OWGR Top 100 over the last 12 months

We know what the top 100 in the Official World Golf Rankings looks like after the first tournament of 2017. We know Justin Thomas has made a leap up to No. 12 and that Jason Day remains at No. 1 (barely). We know the top five is historically great (Day, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson). And we know Tiger Woods is now inside the top 700.

But what about how all of this looked this time last year? I went back and pulled the rankings from just one year ago (Jan. 2, 2016) to see who has risen (and fallen) the most over the last 12 months. Let's take a look at the guys who have risen first.

Note: This is only golfers who are currently in the top 100 of the OWGR.

Golfer	Current Rank	Beginning 2016 Rank	Gain
Richard Sterne	93	379	+286
Roberto Castro	68	352	+284
Si Woo Kim	52	296	+244
Jhonattan Vegas	67	277	+210
Steve Stricker	95	238	+143
Andrew Johnston	88	218	+130
Bradley Dredge	94	222	+128

Not a lot of big names in there really. These are mostly guys who were floundering or injured who had a couple of nice tournaments and rocketed up into the top 100. But what if you turn the gain a player had into a percentage. That is, Jason Day started 2015 at No. 2 and eventually moved to No. 1. He moved up 100 percent of the spots available for him to move up. Alex Noren went from No. 96 to No. 9. He moved up 92 percent of the spots available for him to move up.

Here's how that list looks.

Golfer	Rank	Beginning 2016 Rank	Percentage Gain
Jason Day	1	2	100 percent
Alex Noren	9	96	92 percent
Si Woo Kim	52	296	83 percent
Roberto Castro	68	352	81 percent
Tyrrell Hatton	23	106	79 percent
Rafael Cabrera-Bello	28	116	77 percent
Jhonattan Vegas	67	277	76 percent
Richard Sterne	93	379	76 percent
Dustin Johnson	3	5	71 percent
Justin Thomas	12	37	69 percent

Others big names include Hideki Matsuyama (64 percent), Jason Dufner (54 percent) and Rory McIlroy (50 percent). This is not a perfect way to look at the rankings, but it's probably a better way to look at who improved the most year over year.

Everyone would say Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Tyrrell Hatton and Alex Noren are among the most improved based on where they were perceived at this time last year.

"I wasn't mad, but it was maybe a little frustrating sometimes seeing some friends and peers my age do well," said Thomas after winning the Tournament of Champions. "Not because I wasn't cheering for them because I feel like I was as good as them. It's just immature of me. I mean, the fact of the matter is, over the course of a long career, we're going to beat each other. That's just how it is."

Thomas is a superstar so it's easy to see why he felt this way. He also didn't pout, he did something about it. He moved all the way into the top 12 in the world with his win over Hideki Matsuyama last week. You could argue, pretty easily, that Thomas is the most improved player on the planet in the last year.

Let's take a look at some of the guys who struggled most in 2016. These are guys who started in the top 100 and fell (in some cases, way) out.

Golfer	Current Rank	Beginning 2016 Rank	Loss
Brendon Todd	517	80	-437
Hunter Mahan	425	68	-357
Steven Bowditch	276	72	-204
Prayad Marksaeng	285	100	-185
Miguel Angel Jimenez	254	90	-164

Others include Cameron Tringale (-137), Ian Poulter (-130) and Jamie Donaldson (-99). All of these golfers have dropped off for a variety of reasons. Some were injured. Some struggled mentally. Some just did not play very good golf when they needed to most. It will be interesting to track if they, especially a former top-five player like Mahan, can make it back to the top.