World Rankings: Darren Clarke has risen from 90th to 56th in the world rankings following his KLM Open victory yesterday.
Sergio Garcia and Vijay Singh remain fourth and fifth respectively despite the fact that it was Singh who won their play-off at The Barclays in New Jersey.
Colin Montgomerie slipped from 88th to 91st in the week when he could find himself out of the Ryder Cup team for the first time since his debut in 1991.
Clarke won his second European Tour title of the season - adding to the BMW Asian Open he won in April - and will have done his chances of a wild card pick no harm at all.
Clarke will not make Nick Faldo's European team on merit and will, therefore, have to rely on one of the two wild card picks if he is to feature at Valhalla.
Faldo will make his selections known immediately after the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles this week. Paul Casey and Ian Poulter, along with Montgomerie, appear to be Clarke's main rivals as the 40-year-old bids for a sixth successive Ryder Cup campaign.
Paul McGinley, who is up to 87th in the world, was Clarke's closest challenger as he finished second to Clarke in the Netherlands after a final round 64. However, it would appear the Dubliner has left it too late and is unlikely to be one of Faldo's wild card selections.
Pádraig Harrington remains the highest placed Irishman at third in the world rankings. The three-times major winner missed the cut at The Barclays and will look to bounce back at this week's Deutsche Bank Championship, the second leg of the lucrative FedEx Cup on the PGA Tour.
Graeme McDowell is next of the Irish at 29th in the world.
Latest leading world rankings:
1 Tiger Woods 17.64pts
2 Phil Mickelson 9.90
3 Pádraig Harrington 7.80
4 Sergio Garcia 6.78
5 Vijay Singh 6.65
6 Henrik Stenson 5.46
7 Stewart Cink 5.12
8 Ernie Els 5.11
9 Geoff Ogilvy 5.06
10 Steve Stricker 4.98
11 Adam Scott 4.88
12 Lee Westwood 4.76
13 Jim Furyk 4.74
14 Justin Rose 4.67
15 KJ Choi 4.60
16 Anthony Kim 4.55
17 Kenny Perry 4.40
18 Miguel Angel Jimenez 4.03
19 Trevor Immelman 4.02
20 Rory Sabbatini 3.97
Selected others:
29 Graeme McDowell
56 Darren Clarke
87 Paul McGinley
