As if there weren’t enough talking points in the golf world right now, Tiger Woods’ recent jump in the Official World Golf Rankings has sparked more online debate about the legitimacy of the OWGR himself.
Woods entered last week at 1,328th in the rankings, the lowest point he has ever reached. fell throughout his career. To put that into perspective, the 15-time major champion was alongside names like Jonathan Agren and Sebastian Heisele, only one of whom has his own Wikipedia page.
That didn’t last long, as Woods made a huge jump in the world rankings after finishing 18th at the Hero World Challenge. Woods is now ranked 898th, a jump of 430 places that has sparked plenty of controversy on Golf Twitter. The reason? There were only 20 players in the field at the Hero World Challenge, an event Woods hosts and benefits his Tiger Woods Foundation. The golf legend beat just two players: reigning US Open champion Wyndham Clark and Will Zalatoris, who finished at 11 over par after returning from a nine-month break after having back surgery.
Speaking of Zalatoris, his last-place finish earned him more world ranking points than Alex Fitzpatrick earned for his T-8 finish at the ISPS Handa Australian Open, as first pointed out by @ LIVGolfUpdates on X, formerly known as Twitter:
The fact that Joaquin Niemann, who won the Australian Open, received only two more points (14.79536) than Justin Thomas (12.03997), who finished third in Albany. This also secured Thomas’ place in the top 30 (he is currently 26th) heading into 2024. If he remains in the top 30 heading into 2024’s second marquee event, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, he will be on the ground. Thomas will not be part of the Sentry, reserved for winners from the previous calendar year as well as the top 50 players on the 2023 FedEx Cup points list (those who reached the BMW Championship, which Thomas did not do).
As for Zalatoris, his final finish, by nine shots from 19th, allowed him to remain 33rd in the OWGR after falling during his layoff from eighth place following his last official start at the WGC-Dell Match Play in March.
