Woods has big chance to gain ground in ranking this week in Abu Dhabi

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- Tiger Woods, outside the world's top 50 early last month, will be back close to the top 10 if he wins the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on the European Tour this week.

And it is even possible that, come the Masters in April, he will have the chance to regain the No. 1 spot.

Luke Donald remains No. 1, having held the spot since he won the BMW PGA Championship in England last May, with Lee Westwood still in second. U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy is holding on to third place, with former PGA Champion Martin Kaymer in fourth.

Steve Stricker, at No. 5, is the top-ranked American, with fellow American Webb Simpson sixth. Australian Adam Scott is seventh, one place ahead of reigning Masters champion Charl Schwartzel. Big-hitting Dustin Johnson, who started the Humana Challenge last week but then pulled out with back pain as he recovers from knee surgery, is ninth, while young Australian Jason Day is 10th.

The second 10 includes No. 11 Matt Kuchar, No. 12 Nick Watney, No. 13 Graeme McDowell, No. 14 K.J. Choi, No. 15 Phil Mickelson, No. 16 Justin Rose, No. 17 Sergio Garcia, No. 18 Hunter Mahan, No. 19 Ian Poulter and No. 20 Paul Casey.

Elsewhere in the rankings, Mark Wilson climbed from 57th up to 40th with his win at the Humana Challenge on Sunday, and Branden Grace has moved into the world's top 100 following his back-to-back European Tour wins. A month after coming through Q-School, the 23-year-old South African is up to 92nd in the world rankings from a position of 271st at the start of the year after winning both the Volvo Champions on Sunday and the Joburg Open seven days earlier.

With an appearance fee reported to be well into seven figures, Woods has chosen the Middle East for his first tournament of the year rather than the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. That is the course near San Diego where he has not just won that event five times, but also landed the last of his 14 majors at the 2008 U.S. Open.

The Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship is also his first tournament since he ended more than two years without a victory at the Chevron World Challenge last month. That was in a field of only 18, the highest ranked of whom at the time was No. 6 Steve Stricker, but there were still enough points on offer to take Woods from 52nd to 21st.

He has slipped back to 25th during a six-week break, but because of the presence this week of the world top four Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy and Martin Kaymer, there are even more ranking points up for grabs.

Indeed, this is shaping up as the second-best field for a European Tour event outside majors and World Golf Championships since the rankings began.

Woods will be making his debut in Abu Dhabi, but is a two-time winner of the nearby Dubai Desert Classic. Last year, though, he finished only 20th in Dubai, a closing 75 leaving him seven behind winner Alvaro Quiros, and was fined for spitting.

Colin Montgomerie, for one, can see Woods continuing his revival this season, predicting that he might even win two of this season's four majors.

"A Tiger victory at the Masters would be the best story for golf," Montgomerie said.

And when asked whom he thought would be world No. 1 at the end of the year, Montgomerie went for Woods or McIlroy.

"He hasn't played that much in the last two years and so can move back up more quickly because of how the rankings work," said the Scot.