The king is dead; long live the king.
Tiger Woods no longer is the No. 1 player in the World Golf Rankings, after 281 weeks or 1,967 days, but he is among four players who could emerge at the top of the heap after the WGC-HSBC Champions Tournament this week in Shanghai.
Lee Westwood of England this week became the 13th player to claim the No. 1 ranking after Martin Kaymer of Germany failed to finish in at least a tie for second in the Andalucia Valderrama Masters in Spain.
"Growing up, when people ask what you want to achieve, you turn around, say, 'I want to be the best in the world,'" said Westwood, who is the only one of the 13 without a major title — although Ian Woosnam, Fred Couples and David Duval also were No. 1 before claiming one of the Grand Slam events.
"Right at this very moment, I can show people the world ranking and say, look, I'm the best in the world. I'm the best on the planet for golf at the moment. It's a fairly large achievement when you look at the people who were No. 1 in the ranking."
Kaymer said even before finishing 21st in Spain, "At the moment, for me, Lee Westwood is the best player in the world."
Westwood became the first European to ascend to the top of the World Golf Rankings since Nick Faldo of England in 1994, and all over Europe they are hailing this as a new chapter in the game, especially after the Euros reclaimed the Ryder Cup last month.
One publication even said this is the new world order.
"We have always bowed to America's dominance of the world rankings, with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson one and two, respectively," said Colin Montgomerie, the European Ryder Cup captain. Montgomerie was the top player in Europe for years but could not win a major or claim the top ranking.
"But now we don't just have Lee Westwood, but also Martin Kaymer coming up as well. There is a changing of the guard toward Europe and also the European Tour."
That's an interesting statement considering that Kaymer, who lives in Phoenix much of the year, plans to join the PGA Tour next season along with Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland, the U.S. Open champion.
But you can't blame the Euros for reveling in this turn of events.
"The ranking system is self-propagating, and for the last 10 years, U.S. Tour players have benefited from having Tiger as No. 1 and Phil Mickelson as No. 2," said Paul McGinley of Ireland, one of Monty's vice captains at Celtic Manor.
"The more higher-ranked players in the field, the more ranking points available at their tournaments. But if we have the top two players in the world playing in Europe, and with three out of this year's four major winners being European Tour members, there are going to be more ranking points available to our players every week."
Mickelson, who defends his title this week at Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai, has had 12 chances to unseat Woods atop the rankings since winning the Masters but has been unable to claim the No. 1 spot for the first time in his career.
Lefty withdrew from the PGA Grand Slam of Golf last month in Bermuda, citing his battle against psoriatic arthritis, and perhaps only he knows how much that has caused his so-so play this year.
Woods acted with indifference all year when he was asked about losing the No. 1 ranking, and he was so unconcerned when the projection was made that either Westwood or Kaymer would take over this week, he did not change his schedule to protect his position.
"Winning golf tournaments takes care of a lot of things, and being No. 1 is one of them," Woods said in August. "And I haven't won in a while."
Woods hasn't hoisted a trophy since the JB Were Masters in Australia last November, a couple of weeks before his world began unraveling the morning after Thanksgiving.
However, Woods has shown that his game seems to be coming around after his work with instructor Sean Foley, especially when he routed Francesco Molinari of Italy, 4 and 3, in Ryder Cup singles by playing 15 holes at 9 under par.
"I felt like that was coming," Woods said recently. "I had played well in spurts like that by the time we played an entire round or match at that level. But I've been hitting shots like that intermittently throughout the matches.
"I just put it together for that one match. ... It was nice to make a few putts and just keep the momentum going. Actually, I was 2 down through five. So I ended up turning that match around, and making that many birdies and getting one eagle in there was a lot of fun.
"I like where my game is headed. I like the pieces of it and how they're falling into place."
Woods has been through this before. He lost the No. 1 ranking to Vijay Singh of Fiji late in 2005, and the buzz then was that several players might trade the top spot throughout the 2006 season.
The sharks circling in the water that time were Singh, Mickelson and the stoic South Africans, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen.
That kind of talk is starting again.
"Rather than just having one guy at the top, it could now develop into a great race to be world No. 1," McGinley said. "It's going to create more interest."
Of course, Woods blew all of that "Big Five" talk out of the water by winning eight times in 2006, including the Open Championship and the PGA Championship.
No matter whether history repeats itself, this should be fun to watch.
