Tiger sniffs out new territory as world number two

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) - For the first time in more than five years, Tiger Woods became reacquainted with life away from the number one spot in the official world rankings.

The 14-times major champion was deposed by Britain’s Lee Westwood when the world rankings were released on Monday, but Woods can return to the top should he win this week’s WGC-HSBC Champions event in Shanghai.

For the moment, though, the 34-year-old American is well aware that a mediocre 2010 season without a single victory would eventually result in one outcome.

“As far as the ranking is concerned, yeah I’m not ranked number one,” Woods told reporters on Monday. “In order to do that, you have to win tournaments and I didn’t win this year.”

Speaking after he had played an exhibition match with Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa at Yokohama Country Club, Woods said he was adjusting to not being the top-ranked player.

“As far as emotions go, it is what it is,” he added. “You have to win in order to become number one in the world and you have to win a lot to maintain it. This is the way it goes.”

Woods had been the game’s leading player for the previous 281 weeks, and a total of 623 in his career, before he was finally toppled by Englishman Westwood.

The American’s private life unravelled amid sordid revelations of serial philandering at the end of last year, an unexpected chain of events that led to the break-up of his marriage and erratic tournament golf.

His aura of invincibility on the course was severely dented and he ended his 2010 PGA Tour campaign without a victory for the first time since joining the circuit in late 1996.

In many ways, it was something of an anti-climax when Woods was dethroned by Westwood, who was at home nursing a lingering calf injury after competing only three times since he finished second at the British Open in July.

The Englishman became only the fourth player to become world number one without winning a major title, and many feel third-ranked German Martin Kaymer is a worthier candidate after clinching this year’s U.S. PGA Championship.

Rankings expert defends system after Harmon’s attack

LONDON (Reuters) - Tiger Woods would disappear out of the world’s top 50 if golf’s intricate rankings system was changed, the European Tour’s statistics expert Ian Barker said on Tuesday.

Responding to Woods’s former swing coach Butch Harmon’s criticism of Lee Westwood’s rise to No.1 despite the fact that he has never won a major, Barker said golf’s two-year rolling rankings were transparent, fair and designed to avoid the “anniversary effect” often criticised in tennis.

Harmon lambasted the rankings on Monday after Britain’s Westwood ended 14-times major winner Woods’s reign at the top.

The American said the “system sucked” and that Germany’s Martin Kaymer was the rightful heir to the throne.

Third-ranked Kaymer has won four tournaments this year, including the U.S. PGA title and, if the rankings were worked out over a 12-month period as they are in tennis, the German would be top.

“Kaymer should be number one,” Harmon, who now works with Phil Mickelson said. “Did Westwood win a major this year, or any year? I think not.”