At the end of 2017, Tiger Woods was ranked 656th in the world and had only one semi-impressive start (the Hero World Challenge) at an easy course with a small field under his belt.
Now, after the newest Official World Golf Ranking was released on Monday morning, Woods has jumped to 13th and is ahead of, wait for it, Jordan Spieth. Last week Spieth was 13th and Woods was 14th.
Spieth started 2018 as the second-ranked player in the world but has stumbled back since. He hasn’t been as low as 14th since the end of 2014.
Spieth was winless in the 2017-18 season, recording five top 10s. His last victory was the 2017 British Open at Royal Birkdale. He made his season debut at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open last week, finishing 55th.
“Not great,” Spieth said after his one-over 72 on Sunday. “I just kind of lost the swing a little bit and I got some tough breaks. Really did. I had couple plug lies, couple divots early in the round that I made a couple bogeys off from birdie positions. Then from there just kind of hard to stay motivated, I guess. Made some birdies coming in; double on the back. Guy yells, Mashed potatoes right at impact, and I snapped it and it hits a rock and goes out of bounds. Just that kind of stuff that happened a little bit this weekend on the break side of things that held me back.”
Spieth is in the field for this week’s Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico. Woods hasn’t played since he won the Tour Championship, his first victory since 2013. His next event is “The Match” versus Phil Mickelson on Nov. 23, and the following week is his Hero World Challenge, an unofficial event run by his foundation. Woods tied for 9th at the Hero last year, which was his first start since his fourth back surgery.
[bc_video video_id=”5842923482001″ account_id=”416418725″ player_id=”B1lrmWbebQ” embed=”in-page” padding_top=”56%” autoplay=”” min_width=”0px” max_width=”640px” width=”100%” height=”100%”]
