GOLF: Geoff Ogilvy has overtaken Pádraig Harrington in the latest edition of golf's world rankings after the Australian secured his second WGC-Accenture Matchplay title in four years when he defeated Paul Casey in yesterday's final in Arizona.
Ogilvy clearly has an affinity with the tournament and matchplay style for he was also runner-up in the event in 2007. Both he and Casey visited the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Dove Mountain to play a practice round recently and by coincidence the pair were the last men standing.
In the final Ogilvy made a strong start to be three-up at the midpoint of the 36-hole contest, and from there, he went on to win 4 and 3 to receive the €1.1million winner’s cheque.
The win moved the 31-year-old up to fourth in the world - Casey climbed to 13th - while Harrington dropped another place to fifth after his first round defeat in the desert. The three-time major winner is struggling to find his A-game at present and has dropped from third to fifth in the standing in the last fortnight.
Rory McIlroy had a storming week on his professional debut on American soil as the 19-year-old reached the quarter-finals before losing 2 and 1 to Ogilvy.
The Holywood teenager picked up €213,700 for his efforts and moved back up to 16th in the world after dropping one place last week.
Graeme McDowell was another first round loser at Dove Mountain but the 29-year-old remains the only other Irishman inside the world’s top 50 at 38th. McDowell’s fellow Ulstermen, Darren Clarke and Gareth Maybin, are 75th and 88th respectively.
Tiger Woods, who last week returned to competitive action after eight months out, remains top of the standings despite losing to Tim Clark in the second round. Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson are second and third respectively.
Ogilvy also jumped to the top of the Race to Dubai standings with earnings of €1,320,912 from two events, Casey moved into second (€1,091,171) while McIlroy dropped to third with €821,785 from seven events.
Official World Rankings:
1 Tiger Woods (USA) 9.44pts
2 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 7.63
3 Phil Mickelson (USA) 7.28
4 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 6.40
5 Pádraig Harrington (Irl) 6.17
6 Vijay Singh (Fij) 5.97
7 Henrik Stenson (Swe) 4.99
8 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 4.95
9 Camilo Villegas (Col) 4.81
10 Kenny Perry (USA) 4.73
11 Anthony Kim (USA) 4.47
12 Lee Westwood (Eng) 4.32
13 Paul Casey (Eng) 4.32
14 Ernie Els (Rsa) 4.30
15 Steve Stricker (USA) 4.24
16 Rory McIlroy (NIrl) 4.01
17 Jim Furyk (USA) 3.99
18 Stewart Cink (USA) 3.94
19 Adam Scott (Aus) 3.74
20 Mike Weir (Can) 3.70
Selected others:
38 Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 2.63
75 Darren Clarke (NIrl) 1.76
88 Gareth Maybin (NIrl) 1.61
134 Paul McGinley 1.18
141 Damien McGrane 1.14
185 Peter Lawrie 0.91
302 Michael Hoey 0.58
371 Gary Murphy 0.45
