After weeks of moving in the wrong direction, Tiger Woods has finally started to rise again in the world golf rankings.
Last week, Tiger fell to No. 13 in the world golf rankings while he took the week off, his worst position since after the Hero World Challenge in December.
But Woods put together some solid play at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play this weekend. He made it all the way to Saturday afternoon’s quarterfinals where he lost to Lucas Bjerregaard. That earned him a T5 result, his best finish of the season.
Tiger’s solid play and the world golf rankings points that came with it officially moved him back to No. 12 in the World.
Woods previously spent two briefs stint at No. 12 this year after a T20 at the Farmers Insurance Open and again following his top 10 at the WGC-Mexico Championship.
The highlight of Tiger’s week at the Match Play in Austin, Texas, was his 2&1 defeat of Rory McIlroy Saturday morning. The Round of 16 loss sent McIlroy packing, but it didn’t hurt his position in the world golf rankings. In fact, McIlroy improved his position as well, moving from No. 4 to No. 3. Only Justin Rose and Dustin Johnson are ranked better than Rory right now.
As for Woods, he still has a lot of ground to make up to return to the top spot in the world golf rankings. After another week off, he’ll make his next start at the 2019 Masters at Augusta National. While a return to No. 1 might be out of the question in two weeks (even if he were to capture a fifth green jacket), a spot in the Top 10 is well within reach. Only Valspar champion Paul Casey (No. 11 ) and Xander Schauffele (No. 10) stand in his way.
The casualties of Tiger’s solid week in Austin and subsequent rise in the world golf rankings are Tommy Fleetwood and Jason Day, who dropped to Nos. 13 and 14, respectively.
You can see the full Official World Golf Ranking here.
