Golf legend Tiger Woods sinks to remarkable career low

Tiger Woods has officially crashed to the lowest world ranking of his golf career - and things are about to get even worse in 2026. 

Woods, who turns 50 years old in December, has fallen to an unthinkable 2,048th in the latest Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR). 

It's a remarkable career low for a man who holds multiple OWGR records: most total weeks (683) and most consecutive weeks (281) as World No.1, as well as most weeks (906) in the top 10, with one consecutive run of 736 weeks. 

The 15-time major champion first fell out of the top 2,000 players in the world two weeks ago on 5 October. 

Only the slide is unfortunately going to continue for the former World No.1 as a result of his latest update to the world last weekend.

Woods confirmed he has undergone the seventh back surgery of his career - a lumbar disc replacement in his L4/5 to ease ongoing back pain.

Prior to his latest back surgery, Woods was already recovering from surgery to repair a ruptured left Achilles tendon in March. 

There is currently no timescale on Woods' return to PGA Tour action.

Some medical experts consider it will take the golf legend at least three months to fully recover from lumbar disc replacement surgery.

That's before Woods has even got his TaylorMade clubs back out the garage, so we could be looking at around six months until he's fully back on a golf course again.

Woods did earlier this week confirm he will be in attendance for all of his Jupiter GC Links' matches at TGL, his tech-infused golf league that tees off its second season at the SoFi Center in Florida. 

Jupiter Links' first match is on Tuesday 13 January, so we will definitely see Woods making an appearance there.

As for whether he will participate and hit balls into the giant screen remains to be seen. 

Should six months indeed be the case for Woods to return to competition on an actual golf course, then he will be in a race against time to make The Masters in April 2026, as that's exactly six months from the date of his back surgery. 

Golf's first major of the 2026 season once again takes place at famed Augusta National from 9-12 April. 

Woods has slipped on the famous green jacket five times at The Masters, of course most recently against all the odds in 2019. 

If Woods doesn't manage to play golf before The Masters then an even worse OWGR situation could unfold for him. 

His world ranking could totally evaporate. 

Tiger Woods could unthinkably fall out the OWGR completely in 2026

According to golf stats guru Nosferatu (@VC606) on X / Twitter, it is now "increasingly likely that by the 2026 Masters, Woods will run out of world ranking points completely..." 

The OWGR system runs on a rolling two-year cycle. If a golfer doesn’t compete in OWGR-sanctioned events during that time, their total eventually drops to zero - effectively removing them from the rankings altogether.

When Woods went on to win the ZOZO Championship to tie the PGA Tour record for 82 wins alongside late great Sam Snead, he ended the 2019 season as the sixth best player in the world. 

But six years on and with only a handful of tournaments completed in that period, Woods looks on from outside the top 2,000 in the world. 

Woods incredibly managed to play in three tournaments in 2022 but poor results saw him fall to 1,274th in the world.

He then nudged himself up to 887th after making just two appearances in 2023.

But his five starts in 2024 sent him tumbling back into the pack, with a WD at the Genesis Invitational followed by a solo 60th (last of those that made the cut) at The Masters and then three straight missed cuts at the US PGA, US Open and The Open. 

The biggest reason for Woods' fall from grace was his horror car crash in Los Angeles in February 2021 where he was fortunate to survive.

Woods was left with life-changing leg and ankle injuries that he must live with for the rest of his life. 

Despite trying his best to return to the game in recent seasons, his latest surgeries in 2025 to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon and a lumbar disc have pushed him back even further on his return to the PGA Tour, all before he hits the big 5-0 on 30 December. 

As a result of having to take further time out of the game to rest and recover, Woods will have not not played in a competitive tournament all season and that will mark the first time that has happened since 2016. 

Woods has also now not played in a Tour event since missing the cut at the 152nd Open at Royal Troon in July 2024.

Three-time PGA Tour winner Johnson Wagner believes we'll never see Woods play again in major championships after learning about his latest back surgery. 

"I say that because I have with so much respect for him and admiration for what he did but I'm going to say this, I don't think we'll ever see him play in another major championship" Wagner told Trey Wingo on his podcast.

"He’s always been a guy who has said he won't be a ceremonial golfer.

"I just don’t see a world where we see him play in The Masters again — and that makes me very sad.

"I think his body is just beaten down, and I don’t think he can do it anymore."

Here at GolfMagic, we don't entirely agree with Wagner's sentiments although we do think Woods will have one eye on retiring from golf at the 155th Open Championship at St Andrews in July 2027. 

We can see Woods giving things one last try to get back on Tour in 2026 but eventually see him calling time on his career and bowing out at the Home of Golf at his favourite Old Course at St Andrews, just like record 18-time major champion Jack Nicklaus did at the 134th Open in 2005.