WORLD RANKINGS: THE FINAL world rankings of 2008 released yesterday provided official proof, if it were needed, of the rude good health of Ireland's tour players: from a situation at the start of the year where only one player - Pádraig Harrington - was in the world's top-100, his position as the solitary standard-bearer has transformed and the triple major winner is now one of an impressive quintet.
The biggest leap of all has been made by Gareth Maybin, who cut his teeth on the Hooters Tour in the USA before moving over to the Challenge Tour. Now with a full tour card, the Ulsterman has taken giant steps and improved from a world ranking of 689th a year ago to his current position of 91st. Maybin's runner-up finish to Richard Sterne in the South African Open on Sunday enabled him to jump up 93 places in the rankings.
Indeed, the past 12 months was very much an upwardly mobile one for Ireland's tour players: Harrington moved from eighth to fourth; Graeme McDowell started the year in 108th position and has moved to 34th; Rory McIlroy was 232nd in January and has now moved to a career-high 40th; Darren Clarke has gone from 229th to 70th.
Even Paul McGinley, despite failing to break back into the world's top-100, has made progress. The Dubliner started the year in 206th position and has now moved up to 105th.
The immediate significance of it all there will definitely be three Irish players in the field for the Masters at Augusta, where Harrington will be seeking a third successive major title having won the British Open at Royal Birkdale and the US PGA at Oakland Hills. He is on holidays in South Africa, but plans to resume tournament play in Abu Dhabi next month before switching much of his early-season attention to the USA in the build-up to Augusta.
McDowell will be returning to Augusta for the first time since 2005, when he missed the cut. For 19-year-old McIlroy, the biggest mover in the past year in terms of those players breaking into the world's top-50, it will be a debut appearance in the season's first major.
Although McIlroy failed to win a tournament in 2008, his consistency - which included two runners-up finishes among seven top-10 finishes - meant he moved steadily up the rankings. Looking back, though, it was his runner-up finish to Jean-Francois Lucquin in the European Masters in Switzerland that probably had the biggest impact on McIlroy. "I definitely should have won that tournament, but the way I played, all four days, led it from start to finish basically, I took a lot from that and I've learned a lot from that. It was a great learning week but, also, I fell in love with Crans, and it was definitely the highlight of the year."
While Harrington, McDowell and McIlroy can all prepare for the resumption of tournament play in Abu Dhabi in three weeks time as a prelude to their build-up towards the Accenture Matchplay and the Masters, Darren Clarke's bid to break into the world's top-50 by year's end was ultimately in vain.
However, Clarke can still earn a place in the field for Augusta as another cut-off point for invitations will come after the Bay Hill Invitational in March, when those players not already exempt who have moved into the world's top-50 will be added to the field.
If Clarke's goal in the early part of the season is to move up the rankings to, firstly, get into the limited 64-man field for the Accenture, and, then, to claim an invite to Augusta, there is a different aim for Harrington who has closed in on Tiger Woods's world number one spot.
Out of action since June because of knee surgery and unlikely to return until just before the Masters in April, Woods' lead has now shrunk from 11.3 to 3.8 points. Sergio Garcia, nearly 15 points behind when he entered 2008 in 12th place, goes into 2009 as world number two and the man most likely to topple the American.
But Harrington, who has improved from eighth to fourth this year, will have a chance too if he is fast off the blocks on his return to action and his decision to play a block of tournaments taking in the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines, the Los Angeles Open and the Pebble Beach pro-am gives him a chance to make further inroads on Woods.
Woods has been at the head of the rankings for a total of 529 weeks in his career. The last player to take the top spot from him was Vijay Singh in June 2005. Third-placed Phil Mickelson has never been number one, but he too may have an opportunity in the coming months.
England's Justin Rose is one of five men who have fallen out of the world's top-10 during the past year: the others are Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker, Adam Scott and KJ Choi. The players to replace them are Garcia, Robert Karlsson, Camilo Villegas, Henrik Stenson and Lee Westwood.
Johan Edfors has been picked to represent twice-winners Europe at the Royal Trophy against Asia early next year, organisers said. The big-hitting Swede, the only player with a perfect record at the matchplay event, is the sixth player named on captain Jose Maria Olazabal's team for the January 9th-11th contest in Thailand. "Johan won all three matches he played at the Royal Trophy . . . this speaks for itself," Olazabal said.
1 Tiger Woods (USA) 12.27pts
2 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 8.21
3 Phil Mickelson (USA) 7.19
4 Pádraig Harrington (Irl) 7.07
5 Vijay Singh (Fij) 6.78
6 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 5.15
7 Camilo Villegas (Col) 4.97
8 Ernie Els (Rsa) 4.87
9 Henrik Stenson (Swe) 4.86
10 Lee Westwood (Eng) 4.80
11 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 4.52
12 Anthony Kim (USA) 4.52
13 Jim Furyk (USA) 4.40
14 Steve Stricker (USA) 3.97
15 Kenny Perry (USA) 3.94
16 Stewart Cink (USA) 3.93
17 Adam Scott (Aus) 3.89
18 KJ Choi (Kor) 3.84
19 Justin Rose (Eng) 3.67
20 Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 3.46
34 Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 2.81
40 Rory McIlroy (Ire) 2.59.
