Tiger Woods, Brittany Lincicome move up in world golf rankings

At this rate, Tiger Woods will reclaim his spot as world No. 1 in no time.

Well, maybe not, but the guy who owned golf’s top ranking for a record 683 weeks back in the day bounced up more than 100 spots — from No. 647 to No. 539 — in the official world golf rankings after sharing 23rd place in last week’s Farmers Insurance Open. Woods earned his new position — the highest he has been in the OWGR for two years — with a successful return to official PGA Tour competition after a year and his first cut made since the 2015 Wyndham Championship.

Woods made an even more dramatic surge up the rankings roster when he bolted from No. 1,199 to No. 668 after finishing T9 at last month’s Hero World Challenge.

Woods was not the only player making a significant move after a strong performance last week. Another former No. 1, Jason Day finally defeated Alex Noren on the sixth playoff hole at Torrey Pines on Monday and enjoyed a four-spot jump to No. 10 thanks to his 11th tour victory.

Rory McIlroy, another player who once sat atop the OWGR, climbed up three position to get back inside the top 10, at No. 8, thanks to his second-place finish at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

Over on the LPGA, Brittany Lincicome overcame darkness and wind to earn her eighth tour title, defend her Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic title, and leap 17 spots, to No. 36 in the Rolex Rankings. Running to the 18th tee to ensure officials did not call the game as twilight quickly turned into night, Lincicome drilled a birdie putt — her second straight bird, fifth on the back nine, and eighth of the day, along with one bogey — for the W under floodlights to capture the weather-shortened, 54-hole season-opener.

A finishing 7-under 66 for a 12-under overall gave Lincicome a two-stroke win over Wei-Ling Hsu. And while there was no J.B. Holmes to bring the proceedings to a standstill, the final threesome comprising the quick-playing Lincicome, top-ranked Shanshan Feng, and Amy Yang had to hang out for 25 minutes on the 16th tee while two groups in front of them battled the wind on the difficult and wind-blown par-4.

Not a bad way to kick off the LPGA season — especially after finishing nine holes of the darkness-suspended second round on Sunday before starting the final round.

“When I birdied 17 it was free reign, there was no way we weren’t playing 18,” Lincicome said after successfully defending her first title. “When we had a little bit of daylight, you saw us running, which I don’t run. I was trying to run off the tee to get to the fairway as quickly as possible to hit the shots as quickly as possible.”