Updated: January 31, 2012, 8:24 AM ET

2012 Golf Power Rankings: January

Month:

To put these power rankings together, I considered several factors. I looked at players who had earned the most points in the Official World Golf Ranking in 2012. I also looked at scoring average, top-10s and wins from this season and the last quarter of 2011.

And because the ranking should be a good forecast of which players will play well in the future, I examined how players performed in upcoming events in past years. -- Farrell Evans

2012 Power Rankings: January
RANK	GOLFER	COMMENT
1	Johnson Wagner	The 31-year-old former Virginia Tech star is making a name for himself this year with a mustache on the mostly clean-shaven PGA Tour. But if it wasn't for his three top-10s, including a win at the Sony Open, no one would have ever paid much attention to the hair on his lip.
2	Brandt Snedeker	Kyle Stanley gift-wrapped the Farmers Insurance Open for the Nashville native, but he's been trending upward for a while. In 2011, he had seven top-10s, including a win at the Heritage.
3	Rory McIlroy	Since winning the U.S. Open last June, the 22-year-old Northern Irishman has had seven top-10s, including a win at the UBS Hong Kong Open in December. Last week in Abu Dhabi, he finished second. In the past, he has talked about his fondness for U.S.-style target golf. As a PGA Tour member in 2012, he will get an ample opportunity to show his stuff on a regular basis to an American audience. No matter what he might say, it's his dream to win big in the States.
4	Luke Donald	After winning the money titles on both the European and PGA tours in 2011, the 34-year-old Englishman is going to have a difficult time this year matching one of the most consistent worldwide seasons in history.
5	Robert Rock	Tiger Woods and his teacher Sean Foley have made this Englishman famous. First it was Foley who argued last year that Rock had one of the best swings in the game. Then on Sunday Foley's boss was beaten by Rock. When you beat six of the top 10 players in the world, you're going to get a lot of attention.
6	Steve Stricker	Solid all-around players like this Wisconsin native only getter better with age. Since Stricker turned 40 in 2007, he has won nine times, including the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in early January.
7	Webb Simpson	Only Luke Donald was better in 2011 than this 26-year-old religion major from Wake Forest. The Raleigh, N.C., native got off to a good start in 2012 with a tie for third.
8	Branden Grace	So he won twice in January in his homeland of South Africa against mostly Sunshine Tour players. But his idols, Retief Goosen and Ernie Els, were in the field, and so were a lot of other good players.
9	Mark Wilson	The five-time PGA Tour winner is a model pro. He's well-rounded and clearheaded in every aspect of his game. His win at Humana was in his classic style: consistent and unruffled by the pressure.
10	John Rollins	With two top-10s in his three 2012 events, the Richmond, Va., native is doing a lot of good things on the golf course. It's been two years since he last won, but after a third last week at Torrey Pines, a win isn't far off for the three-time tour winner.
11	D.A. Points	The 35-year-old Pekin, Ill., native got his first PGA Tour win last year at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. He's brought that good play into 2012 with two top-10s and a 12th at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.
12	Ben Crane	After a while, Crane's antics as a gymnast or singer in his made-for-YouTube videos could overshadow his golf, but for right now he's still the slowest good golfer in the world.
13	David Toms	The 13-time PGA Tour winner and 2001 PGA Champion is a fossil on the PGA Tour. Anybody shorter than him off the tee is already on the Champions Tour. But at 44, he is still very competitive. Last year he should have won twice. There was a near-miss at the Players, but the very next week he won the Colonial.
14	Sergio Garcia	In his first event of 2012 at the Abu Dhabi Championship, the 31-year-old Spaniard had a 12th-place finish. After winning twice in Spain in October, he must be brimming with confidence.
15	Thomas Bjorn	In 2011, the big Dane won three times. The 40-year-old won impressively in back-to-back weeks at the Johnnie Walker Championships and the Omega European Masters late last summer. In Abu Dhabi last week, he finished in a tie for third with Graeme McDowell and Tiger Woods.
16	Harrison Frazar	In a recent ESPN Golf study of 2011 PGA Tour winners, two business school professors found that the 40-year-old Texan had the most statistically surprising win of the year. He didn't play well before or after the event. He must have taken that bit of unwanted notoriety to heart after a second and a fifth this year before missing the cut at the Humana Challenge.
17	Jason Day	The 24-year-old Australian was on seemingly every important leaderboard in 2011. He had second-place finishes at both the Masters and the U.S. Open, a T-6 at the Players, a T-4 at the WGC-Bridgestone and T-6 at the Tour Championship.
18	Tiger Woods	There isn't much to go on from last year to forecast how Tiger might play in 2012. But he did have that unofficial win at the Chevron World Challenge. A tie for third last week at Abu Dhabi is evidence that he's still capable of winning if everything goes his way.
19	Bill Haas	Perhaps the 29-year-old son of Champions Tour star Jay Haas had one of the single most impactful days in golf history. With a 4-foot putt to close out Hunter Mahan in their playoff at the Tour Championship, he earned the $10 million FedEx Cup title and a captain's pick to the Presidents Cup team. This year he wants to prove it wasn't a fluke.
20	Kyle Stanley	Before his very public implosion at Torrey Pines, the former Clemson standout was already considered a rising star on the PGA Tour. Last year in his rookie season, he had four top-10s, including a second at the John Deere. What happened at Torrey Pines will only make him stronger.