Tiger Woods can jump up the world rankings just by finishing in last place

As Tiger Woods’ absence from golf went on and on, his precipitous fall down the world rankings got more and more depressing. There were these weekly check ins and Monday morning tweets about his latest standing, but after a while — maybe when he dipped out of the top 400 — you stopped caring and just had to look away and forget it existed.

So where does he stand now as he makes his return to the game? Are you sure you want to know? Ready?

Tiger Woods is the 898th-ranked player in the Official World Golf Rankings. To put that in perspective, there were panicked articles in early 2015 about his drop to No. 62, then the lowest mark since he officially joined the PGA Tour in 1996. His first-ever appearance in the OWGR came in at No. 730 way back in 1994. Woods would obviously get to work on rocketing up to No. 1, where he’d lord over the entire system for years.

The No. 898 ranking this week puts him right in between fellow legends Sean Riordan and Simon Yates. He’s also, well, a little bit of an outlier among this loaded 18-man field at the Hero World Challenge.

But fear not! The long road back to the top begins this week in the Bahamas. Not playing on the biggest and most competitive Tours, and not playing at all, obviously leads to the kind of quick and dramatic fall we witnessed with Tiger.

Just by teeing it up in a competitive event this week, Tiger should probably jump 150 spots back up the rankings. That’s just for playing and coming in last place, which is a very real possibility given the small field size and depth of that field. These are all world-class players who haven’t been sitting out for 16 months. Tiger should come in 18th out of 18 players. The strength of that field, however, ensures there’s a sizable bucket of points out there for participants like Tiger to scoop up even if he plays like garbage.

Some have already raised eyebrows about the amount of world rankings points available at a silly season December event with a closed and limited field. The world rankings can be quirky and create odd jumps and dips that seem counter-intuitive. Just getting back in the mix at an event where he can’t miss a cut and with so many highly ranked players should at least get Tiger back on the right path — let’s pull up on that nosedive!

The rankings, of course, are probably not important to Tiger right now. The goal is to stay healthy and just play four competitive rounds without the chip yips or shanking drives all over the Bahamas. Woods, who probably cared a lot about his No. 1 ranking at a different point in his career, has his priorities and joked on Tuesday that he’s just trying to stay in the top 1,000 of the OWGR this year.

The world rankings points will come. There shouldn’t have anywhere to go but (gulp) up. Let’s just get through this week healthy and with four completed rounds.