Tiger Woods drops to number four in rankings as Graeme McDowell overtakes third place – Golf update
Northern Irish Graeme McDowell, nicknamed G Mac, knocks Tiger Woods off his third place spot in the World Golf Rankings. The golfer triumphed over Ryder Cup team mate, Ross Fisher of England, with four and two and confirmed his place among the remaining
16 at the Accenture World Golf Championships (WGC) Match play championship at Arizona and gained enough points to overtake Woods. Woods lost to Thomas Bjorn of Denmark in the first round on the 19th hole.
McDowell, 31, will bounce ahead of Tiger Woods for the third spot when the updated rankings show up on Sunday, despite losing to Yang Yong-eun of South Korea by three and two. “Wow, I'm perhaps a better golfer than him (Tiger Woods) in the last 12 months
but he's definitely the greatest player that's ever lived,” McDowell said, “The world rankings ... it makes nice reading right now. Of course, if someone told me at some point in my career I would be number three in the world, I'd be proud of that fact,” he
added, “It's no God-given right to do anything but it would be nice to slip past Tiger for a little while.”
McDowell started off last year at the 50th place but promptly moved up the rankings after becoming the first European to win the US Open in 40 years. He also played the key role for Europe in beating the United States in the Ryder Cup.
The Englishman Luke Donald also stands a fair chance to cause further dismay to Tiger Woods rankings. He will replace Tiger Woods from the current fourth place if he qualifies for the semi-finals at the Accenture WGC Match play championship. Presently, the
top three places are occupied by Europeans for the first time in over two decades, including Lee Westwood of England, Martin Kaymer of Germany and newly inducted G Mac of Northern Ireland.
Woods is on his lowest ranking in almost 13 years after April 1997. He is winless from the last 18 tournaments since the Australian Masters held in November of 2009. 2010 proved to be the worst year for his career as he was not able to win a single tournament
for the first time in his whole career. Woods lost his first spot to Lee Westwood on 31st October, 2010 after reigning as the world number one golfer for 281 weeks in a row. Kaymer overtook the second spot a month ago with his blistering eight
strokes win at Abu Dhabi, ousting Woods from the first two spots for the first time in six years. According to some commentators, Tiger Woods has become history and stands minimal chances to move up the rankings at the age of 35.
Tags: