After making his comeback at the season-ending Hero World Challenge, Tiger Woods shot up the world rankings. He may not have played much on the PGA Tour lately.
“LIV Golf has expressed frustration at being snubbed by the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), but Tiger Woods was able to benefit from the system at the conclusion of the 2023 season.” Woods participated in only three tournaments during the season, finishing just two of them, because he had to pull out of the previous year’s Masters tournament due to an ankle injury.
This injury caused him to be inactive for more than seven months, before he made his comeback at the Hero World Challenge in November. After spending a significant amount of time away from the PGA Tour, he reached a career-low in the world rankings.
By the end of last year, he was ranked outside the top 1,200 golfers in the world when he traveled to the Bahamas.
Upon his comeback, it was not surprising that he still showed signs of rust in his performance. He ended up finishing 18th out of 20th at the Hero tournament, facing off against some of the top players in the world who were in top form.
Despite his less than impressive showing, Woods saw a significant rise in the world rankings. Woods’ 18th place finish in the limited field PGA Tour event allowed him to gain 430 ranking points, resulting in a significant improvement of 430 spots in the list and placing him back inside the top 900.
This climb in rankings occurred at a crucial moment for the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) as the recognition of LIV Golf by the ranking system was still pending. Although the breakaway league has some of the top players in the world in their fields, they are not able to provide world ranking points to their competitors.
This has caused players like Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau to drop in the rankings. Tiger Woods’ sudden ascent occurred shortly after the breakaway league’s latest OWGR application was denied. The decision made by LIV bosses caused them to be extremely angry, leading them to respond with a critical statement questioning the credibility of the rankings.
The statement from last October stated that the sole purpose of the OWGR rankings is to determine the best players worldwide. However, the recent communication indicated that they are no longer able to fulfill that purpose.
Professional golf currently lacks a reliable and universal scoring and ranking system. The absence of trust and transparency does not provide any advantages for fans or players, especially when superior player performances go unacknowledged. Recently, CEO of LIV, Greg Norman, revived his ongoing dispute with OWGR.
Norman took to social media to point out that LIV only had five players ranked within the top-50 in the world, with three of them being recent signings including Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, and Adrian Meronk. He criticized the ranking list once more, calling the ongoing snub of LIV “laughable” during his outburst.