Golf:Lee Westwood is not certain yet to go to world number one later this month and yesterday's Dunhill Links winner and Ryder Cup team mate Martin Kaymer could be the player to deny him, not Tiger Woods.
Although Westwood will overtake Woods on October 31st - assuming, that is, neither plays before then - Kaymer’s decision to enter the Andalucia Valderrama Masters in Spain that same week now gives him the chance to leapfrog both.
The 25-year-old German moved up to fourth in the world with his third successive European Tour victory on the east coast of Scotland over the weekend.
Westwood, hampered by a recurrence of his leg injury all week, needed a top-two finish to move ahead of Woods, who has led the rankings since June 2005.
Even a top-seven finish would have guaranteed that Westwood took over as number one this Sunday given he was pulling out of his Portugal Masters title defence this week to rest his calf, but a disappointing closing 73 dropped him to 11th.
Rory McIlroy remains inside the world’s top 10 at ninth with Graeme McDowell 13th in the latest standings. Pádraig Harrington is 22nd while Darren Clarke is sill within the top 100 at 96th, whereas Shane Lowry is now 109th.
Latest World Rankings
(Irish in
bold)
1 Tiger Woods 8.67pts, 2 Lee Westwood 8.35, 3 Phil Mickelson 8.27, 4 Martin Kaymer 8.04, 5 Steve Stricker 7.57, 6 Jim Furyk 7.39, 7 Paul Casey 6.18, 8 Luke Donald 5.76, 9 Rory McIlroy 5.49, 10 Ernie Els 5.35,11 Matt Kuchar 5.27, 12 Dustin Johnson 5.06, 13 Graeme McDowell 4.79, 14 Edoardo Molinari 4.72, 15 Ian Poulter 4.65, 16 Hunter Mahan 4.64, 17 Retief Goosen 4.46, 18 Zach Johnson 4.09, 19 Louis Oosthuizen 4.09, 20 Anthony Kim 4.03
Other leading Europeans:
22 Pádraig Harrington, 23 Justin Rose, 25 Miguel Angel Jimenez, 26 Ross Fisher, 34 Francesco Molinari, 39 Robert Karlsson, 43 Peter Hanson, 45 Henrik Stenson, 47 Alvaro Quiros, 57 Martin Laird, 59 Rhys Davies, 64 Danny Willett, 66 Sergio Garcia, 68 Simon Dyson, 72 Stephen Gallacher, 75 Oliver Wilson, 76 Fredrik Andersson Hed, 85 David Horsey, 86 Brian Davis, 90 Soren Kjeldsen, 94 Chris Wood, 96 Darren Clarke, 99 Anders Hansen, 100 Soren Hansen