Tiger Woods was nowhere to be found at last week's WGC-Mexico Championship, but the results still had an impact on Woods' chances of representing the U.S. later this year at the Tokyo Olympics.
Woods tied for 10th in Mexico City last year, but he opted to skip the event after a 68th-place finish at the Genesis Invitational. With increased points in the Official World Golf Ranking available because of the WGC status, Woods could only watch as Americans Patrick Reed and Bryson DeChambeau finished 1-2 and significantly boosted their respective OWGR average.
The world rankings are the metric by which Olympic teams will be finalized in June, with a maximum of four Americans earning spots in Tokyo. Reed is now ahead of Woods in the rankings, and after being the fourth-highest ranked American earlier this month Woods is now down to No. 7 among Americans even though he's 10th in the world – behind Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Cantlay, Reed and Webb Simpson.
But the news gets worse for Woods when you project how the standings will look on June 22, which is when the Olympic teams will be finalized. Based on those projections, Woods would be 10th on the U.S. list, behind also Xander Schauffele, Matt Kuchar and DeChambeau.
It means that the reigning Masters champ is facing a tall task if he wants to make his Olympic debut, and because he's expected to keep a light playing schedule through the summer it means he'll likely need to get win No. 83 before the June cutoff if he's going to qualify.
But with less than four months to go until the cutoff, here's a look at the 60 men who would head to Tokyo if the teams were finalized based on the current OWGR standings (Note: Countries can send a maximum of two participants, with the maximum raised to four if all are ranked inside the top 15 in the world):
1. Rory McIlroy (IRL)
2. Jon Rahm (ESP)
3. Brooks Koepka (USA)
4. Justin Thomas (USA)
5. Dustin Johnson (USA)
6. Adam Scott (AUS)
7. Patrick Cantlay (USA)
8. Tommy Fleetwood (GBR)
9. Justin Rose (GBR)
10. Louis Oosthuizen (RSA)
11. Shane Lowry (IRL)
12. Hideki Matsuyama (JPN)
13. Marc Leishman (AUS)
14. Bernd Wiesberger (AUT)
15. Francesco Molinari (ITA)
16. Abraham Ancer (MEX)
17. Henrik Stenson (SWE)
18. Sungjae Im (KOR)
19. Shugo Imahira (JPN)
20. Jazz Janewattananond (THA)
21. Erik Van Rooyen (RSA)
22. Sergio Garcia (ESP)
23. Victor Perez (FRA)
24. Byeong-Hun An (KOR)
25. Adam Hadwin (CAN)
26. Viktor Hovland (NOR)
27. Corey Conners (CAN)
28. Mike Lorenzo-Vera (FRA)
29. Thomas Pieters (BEL)
30. Joaquin Niemann (CHI)
31. Matthias Schwab (AUT)
32. Haotong Li (CHN)
33. C.T. Pan (TPE)
34. Sebastian Munoz (COL)
35. Andrea Pavan (ITA)
36. Marcus Kinhult (SWE)
37. Joost Luiten (NED)
38. Rory Sabbatini (SVK)
39. Danny Lee (NZL)
40. Lucas Bjerregaard (DEN)
41. Thomas Detry (BEL)
42. Martin Kaymer (GER)
43. Emiliano Grillo (ARG)
44. Ryan Fox (NZL)
45. Carlos Ortiz (MEX)
46. Thorbjorn Olesen (DEN)
47. Kiradech Aphibarnrat (THA)
48. Xinjun Zhang (CHN)
49. Scott Vincent (ZIM)
50. Gavin Green (MAS)
51. Jhonattan Vegas (VEN)
52. Mikko Korhonen (FIN)
53. Rashid Khan (IND)
54. Kristoffer Ventura (NOR)
55. Sebastian Heisele (GER)
56. Kalle Samooja (FIN)
57. Darius Van Driel (NED)
58. Adrian Meronk (POL)
59. Miguel Tabuena (PHI)
60. Udayan Mane (IND)