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Last week’s 12th-place finish at The Barclays was the best Tiger Woods had finished in months, and his third-best of the year. But as this weekend’s Deutsche Bank Championship gets started on Friday, Tiger still has to worry about losing his top spot in the Official World Golf Rankings and playing well enough to advance to the third round of the FedExCup playoffs.

Depending on the results this weekend in the second round of the playoffs, Tiger could lose the number one ranking to Phil Mickelson (currently #2) or Steve Stricker (#4).  Mickelson, coming off a missed cut last week, has four ways to the top ranking:

1. win
2. finish second, with Tiger out of the top three
3. finish third, with Tiger out of the top nine
4. finish fourth, with Tiger out of the top 24, and Stricker doesn’t win

Stricker’s path is a little harder: he has to win and have Mickelson finish fourth or lower, and Tiger finish 10th or lower. Neither Stricker nor Mickelson have ever held the top ranking.  This season, Mickelson has had nine previous chances to move past Tiger.  Tiger’s held the top ranking for 273 consecutive weeks, dating back to 2005.

Then there’s the FedExCup playoffs standings. Only the top 70 players advance to Chicago for the third round of the playoffs.  Stricker, who finished T3 last week, is sitting pretty in second place, while Mickelson is also safe in 10th place.  Tiger, though, has some reason for concern in 65th place. Just making the cut should probably be enough to advance for Tiger, but he also needs to worry about moving into the top 30, as only those players advance to the fourth and final round in Atlanta.  If Tiger falls out of the top 70, it would be the first time he has been ineligible to defend one of his titles.