Darren Clarke has fallen out of the world's top 50 rankings for the first time in a decade.
The Northern Irishman is down from 47th to 51st following his 20th place finish in the Desert Classic in Dubai.
Although he was, of course, a star of the European Ryder Cup win six weeks after his wife Heather lost her battle with cancer, Clarke's time at home during her illness was always going to affect his ranking.
It was better news for Henrik Stenson however, who makes the world's top 10 for the first time following his victory in the Desert Classic.
Stenson pushed Ernie Els into second place and Tiger Woods into third for the best win of his career — a career which six years ago he feared was going the way of Ian Baker-Finch.
After winning the 1991 Open Baker-Finch's game went to pieces and eventually he gave up after a round of 92 at Royal Troon in 1997.
Stenson went into a slump that saw him crash to 176th on the European Order of Merit in 2002 and he now admits: "I wondered if I was going to be like Ian Baker-Finch, who was a great player and then lost it completely and never got it back.
"I became embarrassed to be on the course."
Australian Aaron Baddeley's win in the FBR Open on Sunday, saw him leap from 90th to 44th in the world. A move that guarantees him a start in the Accenture world match play later this month.
Phil Mickelson missed the cut in Arizona and, having been second in the rankings to Woods last September, is now down to sixth.
Latest leading positions:
1 Tiger Woods 20.01pts, 2 Jim Furyk 8.57, 3 Adam Scott 7.31, 4 Ernie Els 6.63, 5 Retief Goosen 6.05, 6 Phil Mickelson 5.99, 7 Vijay Singh 5.67, 8 Luke Donald 5.53, 9 Padraig Harrington 5.31, 10 Henrik Stenson 5.29
11 Geoff Ogilvy 5.09, 12 Sergio Garcia 4.63, 13 Trevor Immelman 4.61, 14 Paul Casey 4.39, 15 David Howell 3.56, 16 Nick O'Hern 3.51, 17 Davis Love 3.45, 18 David Toms 3.37, 19 Colin Montgomerie 3.29, 20 Chris DiMarco 3.17
Other leading Europeans:
22 Jose Maria Olazabal, 26 Robert Karlsson, 28 Ian Poulter, 36 Justin Rose, 39 Niclas Fasth, 43 Carl Pettersson, 45 Johan Edfors, 51 Darren Clarke, 53 Thomas Bjorn, 54 Lee Westwood, 56 Miguel Angel Jimenez, 58 Bradley Dredge, 70 Anthony Wall, 77 Paul Broadhurst, 82 Paul McGinley, 85 Jose Manuel Lara, 89 Simon Dyson, 94 Simon Khan
