Rusty Woods Set for Masters’ Return

Former world number one Tiger Woods will have to match the achievement of his good friend Darren Clarke to win a fifth green jacket in this week’s Masters.

Woods has started just two events in 2015, shooting a career-worst score of 82 to miss the cut in the first of them and withdrawing through injury after just 11 holes of the second.

That led to the 14-time major winner taking a break from competition to work on his game, during which time he dropped outside the world’s top 100 for the first time since September 1996, a slide which continued on Monday as he fell from 104th to 111th.

European Ryder Cup captain Clarke was coincidentally ranked 111th when he won the Open Championship in 2011, with Keegan Bradley then winning the US PGA when ranked 108th.

Since then, Ernie Els has been the lowest ranked player to win any major – 40th at the 2012 Open – while Rory McIlroy was eighth when he won the Open at Hoylake last year and world number one when he claimed a second US PGA title three weeks later.