Sport

Levet climbs the latest world rankings

Golf: Thomas Levet claimed his fifth European Tour title - a record for a French player - by two strokes from Paraguay's Fabrizio…

Mon May 04 2009 - 01:00

Golf:Thomas Levet claimed his fifth European Tour title - a record for a French player - by two strokes from Paraguay's Fabrizio Zanotti at the Spanish Open yesterday at PGA Golf Catalunya and jumped 65 places to 111th in the latest world rankings.

Two shots further back in joint third were Ireland's Peter Lawrie and Dane Thomas Björn. Lawrie was defending his maiden tour title from last year but came up just short. The Dubliner is 159th in the latest standings.

John Daly’s 31st place in Spainish - his first event since December and since he lost four stones through having a gastric band fitted - has not helped his ranking.

Still serving a six-month US Tour ban, the former British Open champion moves on to this week’s Italian Open down at 794th, a drop of six places on a week ago.

READ MORE

On the PGA Tour Sean O'Hair shot a final round of 69 for a one stroke victory at the Quail Hollow Championship from Bubba Watson and Lucas Glover. World number one Tiger Woods finished one stroke further back in fourth place.

O'Hair picked up his third PGA Tour win five weeks after finishing second at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The win takes O'Hair, who started the year 59th in the world, to a career high of 12th, a jump of 10 places.

Pádraig Harrington remains the highest ranked Irishman and is unchanged at seventh despite missing the cut at Quail Hollow. Rory McIlroy drops one place to 18th in the latest standings. AT 47th Graeme McDowell is the only other Irishman inside the top 50.

Latest World rankings (US unless stated, last week's positions in brackets)

1. (1) Tiger Woods 9.78 average points
2. (2) Phil Mickelson 8.57
3. (3) Sergio Garcia (Spain) 6.84
4. (4) Geoff Ogilvy (Australia) 6.35
5. (5) Kenny Perry 5.70
6. (6) Paul Casey (Britain) 5.60
7. (7) Pádraig Harrington (Ireland) 5.38
8. (8) Vijay Singh (Fiji) 5.16
9. (9) Henrik Stenson (Sweden) 4.80
10. (10) Camilo Villegas (Colombia) 4.78
11. (11) Robert Karlsson (Sweden) 4.66
12. (22) Sean O'Hair 4.57
13. (12) Steve Stricker 4.46
14. (13) Anthony Kim 4.24
15. (14) Jim Furyk 4.14
16. (15) Lee Westwood (Britain) 3.91
17. (16) Ernie Els (South Africa) 3.90
18. (17) Rory McIlroy (N Ireland) 3.85
19. (18) Angel Cabrera (Argentina) 3.46
20. (19) Mike Weir (Canada) 3.42

Selected others:

47 Graeme McDowell (N Ireland) 2.37
88 Darren Clarke (N Ireland) 1.62
104 Gareth Maybin (N Ireland) 1.44
138 Damien McGrane (Ireland) 1.13
159 Peter Lawrie (Ireland) 1.02
165 Paul McGinley (Ireland) 1.01