While he came up one shot short of a breakthrough victory, Tiger Woods still made a big move in the Official World Golf Ranking following his runner-up finish at the Valspar Championship.
Woods tied for second in his tournament debut on the Copperhead Course, finishing one shot behind Paul Casey. After starting the year ranked No. 656 and starting the week at No. 388, Woods is now up to world No. 149 heading into the Arnold Palmer Invitational - his highest ranking since May 2015.
Casey moved up five spots to No. 12 with the win, his first on the PGA Tour since the 2009 Houston Open. Patrick Reed went from No. 27 to No. 23 after tying for second alongside Woods, while a fourth-place finish helped Sergio Garcia get back into the top 10 at No. 9, a rise of two spots.
This week’s ranking mark the cutoff for the field for the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. While seedings and pod placements won’t take place for another week, it’s this week’s rankings that will be used to determine who gets into the 64-man bracket in the event of a withdrawal.
India’s Shubankhar Sharma is the last man in currently, up two spots to No. 64 following his T-7 finish at the Hero Indian Open. But with big names like Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson among others already confirming plans to skip the event, and with Brooks Koepka and Hideki Matsuyama still nursing injuries, the cutoff could go to No. 68 or even further.
The current match play bubble looks like this: Kevin Na, Charles Howell III, Joost Luiten and Keegan Bradley are Nos. 65-68, respectively. Luke List moved up four spots to No. 69, and he’s now followed by Julian Suri, Bill Haas and Brandt Snedeker.
Dustin Johnson maintains his grip on the top spot for another week, with Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth and Justin Rose rounding out the top five. Matsuyama remains No. 6, followed by Rickie Fowler, Koepka, Garcia and Jason Day.
