Golfers, and athletes of all sports really, take pride in where they’re from. Whether it’s the state, city or area code – you always notice players wanting to rep their home area.
The whole Ryder Cup is basically built on the principle of competing and representing where you’re from.
Fans tend to do the same thing. It’s always more fun to pull for a player when they’re from your home state (or even your hometown).
With all that in mind, we went through the World Golf Rankings and pulled the home states (or countries) of every player in the top 200 (as of 5/26/23).
28 of the 50 states in the US have at least one player representing them in that top 200.
We found 21 players from the state of California, the most (by far) of any state. In fact, it’s almost triple the amount of the next highest state (Texas with 8).
Pro Men’s Golfers from California
Here are all 21 guys in the World Golf Rankings top 200 in the spring of 2023 including what town they’re from.
| Name | City |
|---|---|
| Akshay Bhatia | Northridge |
| Beau Hossler | Mission Viejo |
| Brandon Wu | Danville |
| Brendan Steele | Idyllwild |
| Cameron Tringale | Mission Viejo |
| Collin Morikawa | Los Angeles |
| David Lipsky | Los Angeles |
| Eric Cole | Palm Springs |
| J.J. Spaun | Los Angeles |
| Joseph Bramlett | Stanford |
| Justin Suh | San Jose |
| Kurt Kitayama | Chico |
| Lanto Griffin | Mount Shasta |
| Maverick McNealy | Portola Valley |
| Max Homa | Burbank |
| Patrick Cantlay | Long Beach |
| Phil Mickelson | San Diego |
| Rickie Fowler | Anaheim |
| Sahith Theegala | Orange |
| Will Zalatoris | San Francisco |
| Xander Schauffele | La Jolla |
California Hall of Fame Golfers
I thought someone searching for current men’s golfers from California would also probably be interested in the Hall of Fame players from the state.
Here are the guys I’ve found so far in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
| Name | City | Induction Year |
|---|---|---|
| Tiger Woods | Cypress | 2021 |
| Ken Venturi | Rancho Mirage | 2013 |
| Phil Mickelson | San Diego | 2012 |
| Johnny Miller | San Francisco | 1996 |
| Gene Littler | San Diego | 1990 |
Golf Hometown Fun Facts
California has the most players of any state in the top 200 with 21. Second most is Texas with 8, followed by Florida (7), and North Carolina and South Carolina with 5 each.
California actually has more players than any country (outside the US) in the top 200 as well. England has the most, 15, of any foreign country.
More States
Here are a few other states you can check out:
Current PGA Players from Nevada
Current PGA Players from Texas
Current PGA Players from Washington
By the way, California also has the most players in the MLB of any state with well over a hundred.