Tiger Woods is facing a terrible career milestone that no one could have imagined

There are far more things Tiger Woods has to be concerned about than his Official World Golf Ranking points. After all, he did announce last week that he underwent a surgery to replace a disk in his back.

Still, as the 15-time major winner continues to not be healthy enough to play in official tournaments, his standing in the world keeps up its inevitable tumble.

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As noted on X by Nosferatu @VC606, Woods dropped out of the top 2,000 players in the OWGR as of Oct. 5 when he placed at 2,001. This past week he fell further to 2,048.

When Woods stepped off the green after winning the 2019 Zozo Championship, capping his Masters-winning season, no one could have predicted what would happen.

To follow the progressive slide, at the end of the ’19 campaign, Woods ranked No. 6. Over the course of the ’20 season, he fell 35 places because he only played six events due to back issues the COVID-19 pandemic. Then came the car accident in February 2021 in which Woods suffered massive leg injuries, and with no official starts he fell to 566 at the end of ’21. The ’22 season brought only three starts and Woods dropped to 1,274, and then he somehow rose to 887th by the end of ’23, despite only two starts. With only five starts in ’24 with one cut made, Woods ended last year at 1,124th.

Woods, who turns 50 in December, spent 683 weeks at No. 1 over the course of 13 years, including 281 straight weeks from June 2005 to October 2010.

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Now, with Woods having not played officially since the 2024 British Open and no timetable for a return after a surgery that could take at least six months from which to recover, Nosferatu@VC606 noted that Woods could completely run out of ranking points and disappear from the ladder by the Masters in April.

And that will be a sad, sad day for golf fans.