Dougherty climbs rankings

England's Nick Dougherty has leapt 53 places to a career-high 47th place in the world rankings and now leads the race for places…

England's Nick Dougherty has leapt 53 places to a career-high 47th place in the world rankings and now leads the race for places in Europe's Ryder Cup team next year.

All this comes as a result of the 25-year-old's two-stroke victory over Justin Rose in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews.

Rose, meanwhile, is also at a career-high 11th, an improvement of two spots on last week, and as well as being second in the Ryder Cup points standings is breathing down the neck of Open champion Padraig Harrington at the top of the European Order of Merit.

Both are in action at this week's HSBC World Match Play Championship at Wentworth.

READ MORE

Ireland's Rory McIlroy (18), whose spectacular third-place finish in Scotland in only his second professional start earns him a European Tour card for next season, he is already up to 308th in the world.

Latest leading positions:

1 Tiger Woods 23.36pts, 2 Phil Mickelson 9.46, 3 Jim Furyk 7.78, 4 Steve Stricker 7.24, 5 Ernie Els 7.01, 6 Adam Scott 6.30, 7 Padraig Harrington 6.00, 8 Rory Sabbatini 5.68, 9 KJ Choi 5.61, 10 Garcia 5.58, 11 Justin Rose 5.51, 12 Geoff Ogilvy 5.46, 13 Vijay Singh 5.42, 14 Zach Johnson 4.77, 15 Luke Donald 4.58, 16 Henrik Stenson 4.58, 17 Trevor Immelman 4.02, 18 Niclas Fasth 3.96, 19 Aaron Baddeley 3.94, 20 Retief Goosen 3.93

Other leading Europeans:

22 Paul Casey, 28 Ian Poulter, 35 Lee Westwood, 44 Soren Hansen, 45 Anders Hansen, 47 Nick Dougherty, 48 Colin Montgomerie, 50 Bradley Dredge, 52 Robert Karlsson, 53 Carl Pettersson, 56 Jose Maria Olazabal, 60 Miguel Angel Jimenez, 64 Mikko Ilonen, 69 Bernhard Langer, 72 Peter Hanson, 76 Raphael Jacquelin, 87 Simon Dyson, 91 Johan Edfors, 94 Thomas Bjorn, 96 Markus Brier, 97 Phillip Archer, 98 Fredrik Jacobson, 127 Graeme McDowell, 183 Paul McGinley, 204 Darren Clarke.