A sigh of relief for Tiger Woods as he becomes eligible for the Chevron World Challenge
There had been a lot of talk about Tiger Woods and his own Chevron Challenge, will he or will he not be able to make the criteria set forth to make the cut. The big question was whether the Chevron Challenge organisers would consider letting go of the Top
50 criteria for him to enter the tournament just because it seemed like an imminent possibility that Tiger Woods would not be able to feature in it.
Chevron World Challenge Organiser Greg McLaughlin, when asked about Tiger Woods’ possible ineligibility, had remained quite positive and said that we would not have to look into bending any rules for Woods.
“We haven't contemplated anything relative to that at all. We're confident he's going to be in the top 50 and will be eligible to play,” said McLaughlin.
Then with a bit of sarcasm, he added, “He most likely would need an exemption. We have two, and we would happily extend one to him.”
As Tiger Woods watched the BMW Championship, the result must have felt like a win for him, even though he was not playing in the event. Although Woods came dangerously close to the cut off, his rank slipped to 49 from 46 in the final rankings that came out
on Sunday, in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR).
This means that Woods will now be eligible to play in the Chevron World Challenge, the tournament he hosts in Southern California in December. The Chevron World Challenge was allowed to offer ranking points two years ago, provided that it would only have
two sponsor exemptions and that both of them would have to be in the Top 50 of OWGR.
The players who passed Woods to make him slip to 49 were Geoff Ogilvy, Sergio Garcia and Bill Haas. The tournament might have looked into asking the PGA Tour for a change in criteria to allow Woods to play, albeit they might not have been able to award ranking
points.
The Tournament will be played from December 1 to 4 at the Sherwood Country Club.
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