As Tiger Woods gets set to return to competition this week at the Memorial Tournament, he'll do so equipped with his highest world ranking in nearly five years.
Woods hasn't hit a competitive shot since missing the cut at the PGA Championship, but slight changes to his point average this week allowed him to move up one spot to No. 5 in the Official World Golf Ranking, past Justin Thomas who has been out since the Masters with a wrist injury. Woods reached No. 6 after winning the Masters, but this is his highest world ranking since June 2014 when he was also fifth.
Kevin Na's victory at the Charles Schwab Challenge helped him jump 21 spots to No. 31 in the latest rankings. Colonial runner-up Tony Finau moved up three spots to No. 13, while Jordan Spieth went from 30th to 29th after a T-8 finish.
Andrew Putnam went from 62nd to 49th after his T-3 finish at Colonial, a timely jump given that the top 50 earned spots in The Open at Royal Portrush. It will likely exempt him into next month's U.S. Open: while Putnam barely missed the top-60 cutoff on May 20, the top 60 in the June 10 rankings will also earn automatic spots in the field at Pebble Beach.
Others to qualify for Portrush via this week's rankings included C.T. Pan, who went from 54th to 47th with a T-3 finish, and Jim Furyk, who rose one important spot from 51st to 50th with a T-13 finish in Fort Worth.
Woods' move past Thomas was the only change this week among the top 10. Brooks Koepka remains world No. 1, followed by Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose, Rory McIlroy, Woods and Thomas. Rounding out the top 10 are Francesco Molinari, Bryson DeChambeau, Xander Schauffele and Rickie Fowler.