OWGR news: Tiger Woods drops outside top 100; Justin Thomas eyes No. 1 at PGA
For the first time in more than three years, Tiger Woods is not a top-100 player in the world.
Woods, who continues to recover from back surgery and injuries sustained in a serious car accident, fell out of the top 100 in the latest Official World Golf Ranking on Monday, dropping to No. 103.
Woods hasn’t played since last fall’s Masters, where he tied for 38th to move to No. 33 in the world.
The last time Woods was ranked outside the top 100 was in March 2018. He was then just beginning his rise back inside the world top 5, which he would achieve a couple of events after his 2019 Masters triumph. Woods last dropped out of the top 100 in March 2015, and he’d end that year ranked No. 416 before teeing it up just four times between 2016 and 2017.
Woods, 45, suffered comminuted open fractures to the upper and lower sections of his right leg, as well as significant trauma to his right ankle in the Feb. 23 single-car crash near Los Angeles. Doctors needed to insert a rod, screws and pins to stabilize Woods’ leg, and Woods remained in Los Angeles hospitals for three weeks until returning home to South Florida in mid-March.
Golf Channel contributor George Savaricas provided an update on Woods’ health on Monday, reporting that Woods was currently in “wait-and-see” mode.
“Hearing TW at the point in the healing process where the next benchmark is for blood circulation to get back to normal in his injured right foot,” he tweeted. “Once this happens, recovery timelines will fall into place.”
In other OWGR news, AT&T Byron Nelson winner K.H. Lee moved inside the top 100 for the first, rocketing all the way up to No. 59. He is in this week’s PGA Championship thanks to his victory at TPC Craig Ranch.
And speaking of the PGA, according to Twitter OWGR guru Nosferatu (@VC606), Justin Thomas can overtake Dustin Johnson as world No. 1 if Thomas wins at Kiawah and Johnson finishes worse than solo fifth.