Tiger Woods Climbs Over 400 Spots in World Rankings After 18th-Place Finish In Return

Tiger Woods made his latest long-awaited return to professional golf at the 2023 Hero World Challenge in The Bahamas, finishing 18th in the 20-man field at Albany Golf Club. 

And although the 15-time Major winner did not fulfil the 'Hollywood' storyline most would have loved to see, there were a couple of other worthwhile consolations.

Firstly, a good deal of competitive rust was shaken off via four commendable rounds. Following a slightly underwhelming 75 on Thursday, Woods fought back magnificently to post a two-under round on Friday in the no-cut tournament. He then wiggled his way to a one-under score on Saturday before ultimately ending the event at level par as Scottie Scheffler lifted the iconic trophy 20 strokes in front.

While the overall scoring was not as competitive as Woods would have liked, one of the greatest golfers ever to have lived still produced occasional flashes of his brilliance to whet the appetite for what may come in 2024.

Explaining how he felt after his first week back, Woods said: "I haven't done it in a while, I haven't done it with my ankle the way it is now, and I was excited each and every day to kind of get through it and kind of start piecing rounds together again.

"I haven't done this in a long time, so it was fun to feel that again. Every day I got faster into the round. The first day took me a while to get a handle on it, second day was faster, today was right away. And that's, when I play on a regular basis, that's normally how it is."

While the 47-year-old's trending game was cause for optimism, perhaps more importantly, there were also Official World Golf Ranking points on offer at Albany Golf Club. Having dropped to his lowest-ever spot in the standings recently, Woods' 18th-place effort helped him climb from 1,328th up to 898th courtesy of 2.4 points.

As well as gaining $130,000 in prize money, Woods moved up 430 spots in the OWGR despite featuring in his first event since withdrawing from April's Masters.

There has been plenty of criticism about such a limited field being able to acquire such a valuable number of OWGR, especially considering those who finished tied-eighth and below at the Australian Open or tied fifth and below at the South African Open - both on the DP World Tour - secured fewer points than Woods.

But those involved in or supporting the Hero World Challenge pointed to the higher quality of the field when trying to justify the share of points.

Woods is back in action at the PNC Championship between December 14-17 at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando, Florida.