KILKENNY, Ireland (AFP) - Tiger Woods found himself relegated to world number three when Ernie Els won the seven-million-dollar WGC American Express Championship.
Although Woods finished ninth, Els' victory assured him of the number two spot behind Vijay Singh.
Woods had to think long and hard to remember the last time he was so far down the rankings.
"I think roughly the Byron Nelson in '99. I fell to three. Davis (Love) went to two and I went to three," said Woods who for the first time in seven years does not have a strokeplay title to defend.
Woods played down his failure to win a strokeplay event this season.
"So be it," said Woods. "I've been close this year. I've come to within a shot of making the playoff two straight weeks during the year.
"I've had I don't know how many second place finishes. I've been up there with a chance to win. I just haven't done it.
"It's just a matter of eliminating the little mistakes which will allow me to win tournaments," he explained.
Woods arrived at Mount Juliet with a shoulder problem, caused when he slept badly on a plane from New York to Florida, and there were doubts he would be able to play.
In Thursday's first round Woods was clearly in pain as back spasms had him doubled in agony.
But he refused to quit - insisting he would play all four rounds.
"I have to heal this thing up," said Woods after shooting a final round two-under 70 to finish the championship 10-under par, eight shots back from Els.
"Doing workouts three times a day isn't the best way to go about my business. I was able to compete. I played as hard as I could and I gutted it out," he said.
"Just having gone all four rounds, I'm proud of that, because I didn't think I was going to be able to. I don't know how I got through Thursday and then even Friday, so I'm pretty pleased," he added.
But Woods refused to be drawn on reports in the Irish media that he was going to get married to his Swedish girlfriend Elin in Jamaica next week.
Asked if he was ready for some heat on a Caribbean island he replied: "I'm ready to go diving. I'm ready to hop in that water and shoot some fish."
But earlier in the week he did admit that he was going to get married sooner than later.