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What does it feel like to wake up and finally stop checking your world ranking with clenched fists? For Michael Kim, it looks like relief—and maybe a little disbelief. The PGA Tour pro saw himself projected 36th in the Official World Golf Ranking on Friday morning. His response was a casual tweet and a laugh.

“Nice to not worry about this, haha,” Kim wrote beneath Nosferatu’s latest OWGR projection post, a typically detailed breakdown showing late-season volatility across global tours.

Jordan Spieth saw something else entirely in that same projection. He’s ranked 70th now, down 50 spots from where he finished 2024. The fall pushed him outside the top-60 threshold, a line that separates the secure from the scrambling. PGA Tour insiders have noted that despite the ranking drop, Spieth will likely retain entry into early 2026 signature events through expanded fields and existing relationships, but the three-time major champion now depends on favors, not form.

One climbed out. The other slid down. And the Official World Golf Ranking documented both journeys with the same indifferent precision.

Kim’s comment landed with unusual weight. Because for him, worrying about rankings had been a full-time job until very recently. He finished 2024 ranked 155th. By early 2025, he’d climbed to 52nd. Now he sits at 35th, his career high, with a 2.2689 average points across 52 events.

His 2025 resurgence began with a statement: a closing stretch that erased years of doubt in four holes. At the WM Phoenix Open in February, Kim fired four consecutive birdies down the stretch to finish runner-up at 17-under. The T2 earned him $1.476 million. He followed with a T4 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, showcasing improved ball-striking at Bay Hill’s unforgiving layout.

But the breakthrough came overseas.

Kim won the FedEx Open de France on the DP World Tour in September by eight shots, which earned him a major exemption and international credibility. He added a T10 at the BMW Championship during the FedEx Cup Playoffs, then watched his ranking climb past players who’d been untouchable months earlier. Four top-10 finishes. Five additional top-15s. Eighteen cuts made in 28 PGA Tour starts. The consistency wasn’t accidental; it was the result of a full-season rebuild.

Spieth’s trajectory moved in the opposite direction—and the reasons run deeper than mere inconsistency.

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Michael Kim’s 2025 climb contrasts Jordan Spieth’s slide

The slide stems from a wrist issue that required surgery in August 2024. Spieth’s left wrist, specifically the ulnar nerve and tendon sheath, had been deteriorating since May 2023. Conservative treatment failed. Doctors rebuilt the sheath in Colorado, then prescribed a 12-week ball-striking hiatus followed by gradual reintegration.

Spieth returned at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on January 30, 2025—his longest competitive break. He reported “no pain” during therapy but acknowledged persistent swelling through the summer. The physical recovery didn’t translate immediately to form.

He played 22 PGA Tour events in 2025, making 15 cuts. Four top-10 finishes suggested flashes of his peak self—including a T4 at Phoenix in February and a T9 at the Cognizant Classic in March. But eight missed cuts and a mid-round withdrawal at the Travelers Championship told the fuller story.

Consistency remained elusive. His ranking bottomed at 84th in February before a partial recovery to 72nd. The climb stalled. He earned approximately $3.2 million across the season—solid by most standards, but reflective of a player navigating inconsistency rather than contending weekly.

Nosferatu’s projection post illustrated exactly this volatility. Rising players like Rico Reitan and Corey Conners pushed others closer to the cutoff lines. The OWGR’s rolling two-year window rewards recent form over legacy. It doesn’t pause for injuries or sentiment.

Spieth can’t afford the same casualness. A sub-60 ranking complicates his 2026 schedule and threatens automatic major entries. But PGA Tour insiders have suggested the three-time major champion will still access early signature events—AT&T Pebble Beach through expanded fields and The Genesis Invitational through existing relationships with tournament hosts like Tiger Woods.

The wrist has healed physically. The ranking needs time to follow.

Whether Kim maintains his top-40 position into 2026 depends on continued form. Whether Spieth climbs back above 60 depends on the consistency he hasn’t shown in 18 months. The OWGR’s fluidity—the very thing Nosferatu noted in his post—cuts both ways.