Rory McIlroy has climbed one place in the world rankings despite not actually competing over the weekend. The vagaries of the rankings system mean that McIlroy moves to 49th in the latest list and another step closer to a US Masters next year.

The top 50 at the end of December qualify automatically for Augusta.

Sweden's Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson, winners of the World Cup in China yesterday, remain at 6th and 12th respectively while the Irish team of Graeme McDowell and Paul McGinley are 31st and 100th in the current standings.

World Rankings(last week's positions in brackets)

1.  (1) Tiger Woods (United States) 13.18 average points
2.  (2) Sergio Garcia (Spain) 8.55
3.  (3) Phil Mickelson (United States) 7.65
4.  (4) Padraig Harrington (Ireland) 7.42
5.  (5) Vijay Singh (Fiji) 7.18
6.  (6) Robert Karlsson (Sweden) 5.16
7.  (7) Camilo Villegas (Colombia) 5.16
8.  (8) Ernie Els (South Africa) 4.86
9.  (9) Anthony Kim (United States) 4.72
10. (10) Lee Westwood (England) 4.69
11. (11) Jim Furyk  (United States) 4.67
12. (12) Henrik Stenson (Sweden) 4.61
13. (13) Steve Stricker  (United States) 4.26
14. (14) Geoff Ogilvy (Australia) 4.20
15. (15) Stewart Cink  (United States) 4.16
16. (16) KJ Choi (South Korea) 4.08
17. (17) Adam Scott (Australia) 4.07
18. (18) Justin Rose (England) 4.00
19. (19) Kenny Perry (United States) 3.79
20. (20) Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain) 3.61

Other leading Irish players

31. (31) Graeme McDowell 2.94
49. (50) Rory McIlroy 2.33
65. (64) Darren Clarke 2.00
99. (100) Paul McGinley 1.48