Tiger Woods has reached a new low in his career, falling to 2,048th in the Official World Golf Rankings, a significant setback for the ailing sports legend.

At 49, Woods faces considerable uncertainty about his ability to compete at the highest level again, especially after undergoing a recent back surgery to replace a disk.

The golf superstar is not expected to be back on the greens until next year, with hopes of being ready for the Masters in April. Meanwhile, the latest rankings have dealt another disappointing blow to the 15-time major winner.

Woods, who turned professional at 20, claimed his first major title at 21, and dominated the sport, holding the world No. 1 position for most of the following decade.

Throughout his career, he has topped the rankings for a total of 683 weeks, with his longest continuous run being 281 weeks from June 2005 to October 2010.

Tiger Woods is now outside the top 2,000 golfers in the world after his latest back surgery

A source told The Daily Mail that the 49-year-old golfer, pictured with girlfriend Vanessa Trump, is still eyeing a comeback in order to end his career on this own terms 

His last stint as the top-ranked golfer was in May 2014. Since then, his battles with injuries have caused his ranking to fall to levels he is unaccustomed to.

The world ranking system runs on a two-year cycle and there is a chance Woods may even become unranked if he doesn’t play again before the Masters.

In 2022, he played just three tournaments, and in 2023 he managed just two. In 2024, he appeared five times but missed the cut at the PGA Championship, US Open and The Open.

He has not featured in a single PGA Tour event since missing the cut at The Open in July 2024, gradually seeing his name tumble down the rankings. 

Earlier this week, the Daily Mail spoke to a source close to the golfer to find out how he plans to recover – and if he wants to play again when he is back healthy. 

The 15-time major winner underwent a spinal fusion in 2017 before returning to golf 

Woods is pictured with daughter Sam, 18, and son Charlie, 16 at the 2024 PNC Championship

‘He’s not stupid. He knows things are winding down, and he’s coming to terms with it,’ the insider admitted. ‘He’s turning 50 this year. 

‘He won’t retire but he’s slowing down. He wants to do at least one more major and to perform well in it. He wants to end the career with a bang, not a whimper. But right now, we’ll have to see.’

The source close to Woods stressed that the golfer’s main focus at present is his recovery – and that will determine his future.

‘He’s not in denial, but he wants to push himself until there’s nothing more he can do. It depends on his recovery if he’s there yet or not. Seems pretty likely that he is,’ they added.

Two years after the fusion, Woods captured his fifth Masters victory at Augusta National 

The 82-time winner on the PGA Tour receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump

But Dr. Kern Singh, an expert in minimally invasive spinal surgery, clarified that it’s not a question of whether Woods can muster any form of sustained comeback but whether he should.

‘Physiologically, yes, a return to professional competition is possible if healing proceeds uneventfully,’ Dr. Singh, a co-director of the Minimally Invasive Spinal Institute at Rush in Illinois, told The Daily Mail.

‘Disc replacement aims to restore normal segmental motion and reduce the stress on adjacent levels – critical for an athlete reliant on rotational power. However, given his extensive surgical history, age, and the cumulative toll on his spine, the risk-benefit balance becomes more nuanced.

‘While he can return, whether he should depends on his tolerance for risk, long-term spinal health priorities, and quality-of-life considerations beyond golf. The more surgeries one accumulates, the narrower the margin for error becomes.’