As somebody pointed out to me earlier this week, Tiger Woods' Official World Golf Ranking coming into the Hero World Golf Challenge (1,199) was closer to Steph Curry's (1,928) than it was to Dustin Johnson's (No. 1). That changed on Sunday when Woods finished T9 with Matt Kuchar in the Bahamas.
As a result, Woods will move to around No. 659 in the world.
Tiger is projected as high as 659 in next week's World Ranking. This week's 659th-ranked player was Finn Fleer, a German who won on the ProGolf Tour in Poland in September.
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGC) December 3, 2017
Woods played quite well all week, punching a 69-68-75-68 scorecard and looking healthy enough to take some absolutely devastating hacks at his Bridgestone throughout. In other words, he earned the leap in the OWGR after not having played in 10 months, but there's debate over how much of a leap he earned.
The Hero World Challenge is the odd tournament with a tiny field that offers OWGR points. As tournament host, Woods selected himself and Daniel Berger to participate in the event. Everybody gets points because there is no cut. One side argues that this is unfair because it affects major championship fields, but the other argues that if you play better you have a better shot at getting in.
Quick reminder that it's a total joke the Hero gets OWGR points. Last year Emiliano Grillo got 4 OWGR points for losing by 19 shots & finishing dead last - the same as he got for a T9 in full-field Mayakoba.
— Jake Nichols (@jalnichols) November 27, 2017
I'm not sure what the right answer is, but I do know that Big Cat is going to leap back into the top 700 on Monday morning with plenty of optimism in front of him. Will he ever get to world No. 1 again? Probably not, but from what I watched this week in the Bahamas, he's at least going to have a chance.
