Woods drops out of OWGR top-1000 for first time in his career

Tiger Woods has dropped outside the top 1,000 players in the world for the first time in his professional career, latest rankings showed on July 17, 2017. | Nezar Baloutnezar Balout/Getty Images

For the first time in his career, Tiger Woods is not among the top-1000 golfers in the world.

The Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) released Sunday an update to its weekly list. Most notably, Woods wasn’t on it for this first time in more than two decades. He dropped 18 spots to No. 1005 this week.

Will Gray first reported Wood’s absence Monday morning.

Woods first made this list in 1994 when he earned his first points as an amateur. He debuted at No. 730.

From there, Woods continued to climb the list. When he made his professional debut in 1996, Woods was ranked No. 434.

He was ranked in the No. 1 spot for nearly half the time he was on the list. He held the top spot for a total of 638 weeks, according to the Golf Channel.

The decline of Woods in the rankings makes sense in part to his absence on the course. He’s played only seven events in the current two-year ranking period, and has only earned three points, according to the Golf Channel.

Woods hasn’t played in a tournament since he withdrew from the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in February. He’s undergone back fusion surgery and sought out treatment for his pain medication use.

American Dustin Johnson remains at No. 1 for another week, and he’s followed by Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and Jordan Spieth.

Here’s the top-10 golfers on the OWGR list this week: