Bowood’s Jordan Smith Overtakes Tiger Woods In World Golf Rankings

Following his maiden win on the European Challenge Tour, Bowood’s Jordan Smith has now overtaken Tiger Woods in the Official World Golf Ranking to become 333, which is 166 places ahead of Tiger Woods who ranks at 499.

The 23 year old sealed his victory at the Red Sea Egyptian Challenge, presented by Hassan Allam Properties, to shoot a three under par 69 to reach 18 under par overall, holding off various challenges on a day of fierce competition. Smith was two shots clear of Switzerland’s Joel Girrbach, England’s Garrick Porteous and Austria’s Manuel Trappel, who all finished the week on 16 under par.

Smith gained his playing rights for the 2016 Road to Oman by topping the Order of Merit on the EuroPro Tour last season and continued to pick up shots on a course where he scored well all week – making five gains to take his tally of birdies to 23 for the week.

Smith was over the moon after sealing the biggest victory of his career to date.  “I can’t believe what’s just happened, I’m just speechless really, everything’s running through my mind and I’m trying to take it all in. He spoke of the win.

“I never really thought I could win on Challenge Tour this quickly, I’d hoped maybe for later in the year, but the last couple of weeks I’ve been hitting the ball the best I’ve ever hit it – that’s all down to my coach Simon Shanks.”

PGA Teaching Professional Simon Shanks has coached Smith at the prestigious Bowood course since he was 14. He spoke of the victory: “Jordan has worked hard with me over the past 9 years at Bowood and it’s great that he is seeing the rewards of that hard work in wins such as this. He has a long season ahead of him and to pick up a win so soon is very pleasing. We are working on polishing his all round game and it’s great to see that our most recent work has been fruitful.”