Tiger Woods capped off his comeback to professional golf with a historic victory at the 2019 Masters. But Woods didn’t just earn his fifth green jacket with Sunday’s triumph; he also surged upward in the world golf rankings, re-entering the Top 10 for the first time in many years.
Thanks to his 15th major win, Woods is now ranked No. 6 in the Official World Golf Ranking. That’s a huge improvement from last week, when he was on the outside looking in at No. 12 in the World.
In fact, Woods had been stuck around that number since his win at the 2018 Tour Championship in September. Tiger had dropped as low as No. 14 in the world golf rankings in recent weeks. A T5 at the WGC-Dell Technologies, which saw him defeat Rory McIlroy in the knockout rounds, moved him back to 12, a ranking he previously reached earlier in the season.
This is the first time Woods has made it into the Top 10 in the world rankings since all the way back in 2014. After winning five times in 2013, Tiger started 2014 at No. 1 in the World. But by the end of that season, after back injuries wreaked havoc on his game, Woods had dropped to No. 32.
From there, it was a downhill plunge as Tiger missed whole seasons due to injury, and people openly questioned whether he would ever play at an elite level again. He hit rock bottom in December of 2017, when he plummeted to No. 1,999.
But that December was also the same month Woods began his most recent comeback campaign. After proving he could get through four rounds comfortably at the Hero World Challenge, he rocketed all the way up to 668th place in the world golf rankings.
Within just a few months from there, Woods had risen into the elite ranks of professional golf once again and began regularly contending for victories.
It took his win at the 2019 Masters, perhaps his greatest of all time, to make it back into the Top 10 in the World, which also gave him something extra to celebrate with his kids and his girlfriend Erica Herman at Augusta Sunday night.
Elsewhere in the rankings, Dustin Johnson, who finished one shot behind Tiger at the Masters, re-assumed his perch at No. 1.
Interestingly, Tiger Woods’ world golf rankings move puts him one spot ahead of his playing partner on Sunday at Augusta National: Francesco Molinari. Molinari held a two-shot lead over Woods through 54 holes but was unable to hold on for the victory.
Molinari has been one of the hottest golfers on the planet over the last year, winning the 2018 Open Championship at Carnoustie last July. The fact that Woods is ranked above Frankie is telling.
Now Tiger can firmly set his sights on a return to No. 1, a position he has already held for more weeks than any other golfer in history.
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