Tiger Woods has plummeted to a career-low 2,048th in the Official World Golf Rankings in the latest blow for the injured icon.
There is plenty of uncertainty over whether the 49-year-old will ever be able to return to the top level of the sport, after having a disk replaced in his latest back surgery this month.
He is not set to return to the course until next year, facing a race to be fit for the Masters in April, and now the latest rankings have dished out some more negative news for the 15-time major champion.
Earlier this month he fell below 2,000th in the list, and now sits at 2,048th – which The Sun reports to be the lowest of his entire career.
Woods won his first major at the age of just 21, a year after he went pro, and he spent the majority of the next decade as world No 1.
In total he has been top of the list for 683 weeks of his career, with the longest streak – 281 weeks – coming between June 2005 and October 2010.
Tiger Woods is now outside the top 2,000 golfers in the world after his latest back surgery
A source told The Daily Mail that the 49-year-old golfer, pictured with girlfriend Vanessa Trump, is still eyeing a comeback in order to end his career on this own terms
He was last ranked No 1 in May 2014, and in recent years his injury struggles have seen him plummet to depths he is far from used to.
The world ranking system runs on a two-year cycle and there is a chance Woods may even become unranked if he doesn’t play again before the Masters.
In 2022, he played just three tournaments, and in 2023 he managed just two. In 2024, he appeared five times but missed the cut at the PGA Championship, US Open and The Open.
He has not featured in a single PGA Tour event since missing the cut at The Open in July 2024, gradually seeing his name tumble down the rankings.
Earlier this week, the Daily Mail spoke to a source close to the golfer to find out how he plans to recover – and if he wants to play again when he is back healthy.
The 15-time major winner underwent a spinal fusion in 2017 before returning to golf
Woods is pictured with daughter Sam, 18, and son Charlie, 16 at the 2024 PNC Championship
‘He’s not stupid. He knows things are winding down, and he’s coming to terms with it,’ the insider admitted. ‘He’s turning 50 this year.
‘He won’t retire but he’s slowing down. He wants to do at least one more major and to perform well in it. He wants to end the career with a bang, not a whimper. But right now, we’ll have to see.’
The source close to Woods stressed that the golfer’s main focus at present is his recovery – and that will determine his future.
‘He’s not in denial, but he wants to push himself until there’s nothing more he can do. It depends on his recovery if he’s there yet or not. Seems pretty likely that he is,’ they added.
Two years after the fusion, Woods captured his fifth Masters victory at Augusta National
The 82-time winner on the PGA Tour receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump
But Dr. Kern Singh, an expert in minimally invasive spinal surgery, clarified that it’s not a question of whether Woods can muster any form of sustained comeback but whether he should.
‘Physiologically, yes, a return to professional competition is possible if healing proceeds uneventfully,’ Dr. Singh, a co-director of the Minimally Invasive Spinal Institute at Rush in Illinois, told The Daily Mail.
‘Disc replacement aims to restore normal segmental motion and reduce the stress on adjacent levels – critical for an athlete reliant on rotational power. However, given his extensive surgical history, age, and the cumulative toll on his spine, the risk-benefit balance becomes more nuanced.
‘While he can return, whether he should depends on his tolerance for risk, long-term spinal health priorities, and quality-of-life considerations beyond golf. The more surgeries one accumulates, the narrower the margin for error becomes.’
