Tiger Woods made his long-awaited comeback from injury at last week’s Masters, and, while he finished 47th, his performance was enough to see his world ranking leap by over 200 places.
The fact that Woods played at all last week surprised many. After all, it is only two months since the 15-time Major winner declared he had “a long way to go” in his recovery from leg injuries sustained following a horrific car crash in February last year. Woods’ performance at Augusta National may have only offered glimpses of the enormous talent that has seen him win the tournament six times. However, considering the length of time he was absent and the severity of his injuries, the fact he competed at all is remarkable.
Not only did Woods compete, he also made the cut, largely thanks to an assured first round of one under par. The fairytale return of Woods winning The Masters wasn’t to be. His putting, including a four-putt, let him down in the third round as he slipped away from the frontrunners. Nevertheless, Woods' ability to complete four rounds on one of the most gruelling courses in the game was evidence enough that it had been a successful endeavour.
That has been reinforced by Woods’ latest Official World Golf Ranking. Before last week’s tournament, Woods had been ranked World No.973. Now, he has jumped to World No.745 with 2.8 ranking points following The Masters – a leap of 228 places. Of course, that is a long way short of the 679 weeks Woods has spent as World No.1 throughout his career, including 280 consecutive weeks between June 2005 and October 2010.
However, despite limping at the end of his final round last week, Woods isn't finished there. He has filed an entry to June’s US Open and intends to play the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews in July. On top of that, he hasn’t written off another appearance at the year’s second Major, next month’s PGA Championship. While Woods admits that his days of performing full-time on the PGA Tour are behind him, further climbs up the Official World Rankings are surely to be expected as he looks to regain fitness and form in the coming months.
Elsewhere, Scottie Scheffler unsurprisingly holds onto the World No.1 position following his first Masters win. Collin Morikawa moves up from World No.3 to World No.2 and Rory McIlroy is up to World No.7 from World No.9 courtesy of the final-round heroics that saw him finish runner-up.
Things You Didn't Know About Tiger Woods
