Tiger Woods drops out of world's top 500 golfers

It's the first time it's happened in his 20-year career as a pro

Tiger Woods (Getty)

Tiger Woods has fallen out of the world's top 500 players for the first time since turning professional 20 years ago.

Despite a career in which the American golfer has won 14 majors, it comes as little surprise considering his form and fitness.

The 40-year-old has not played since the Wyndham Championship last August and when he was playing he was failing to make any sort of assault on actually winning the tournaments he was in.

In 2015 he tied 17th at the Masters and then failed to make the cut at the other three majors of the year. He did not feature in last month's tournament in Augusta.

The latest rankings published this week saw him drop nine spots down to 508.

The last time he was outside of the top 500 players in the world was on July 14, 1996 - when he was still an amateur. A week after that he would tie 22nd at the Open which moved him up to 431 in the world and shortly after that he turned professional.

He would go on to become arguably the most famous sportsman in the world and the second most successful golfer of all time after Jack Nicklaus in terms of success in the majors.