Tom Watson’s agonising play-off defeat at The Open has still improved his world ranking an incredible 1,270 places - from 1,374th to 104th.

If he had holed his eight-foot putt on the final green and become, at 59, the oldest major winner in history by 11 years, Watson would today be ranked 45th in the world.

The title was, of course, taken by his fellow American Stewart Cink instead and he moves up from 33th to ninth as a result.

Watson did not have any ranking points prior to Turnberry under the two-year system and was listed as joint 1,374th with 4,000 other players who had played counting events, but had finished out of the points.

Watson’s remarkable performance has prompted officials to reevaluate the age limit for past Open champions which was reduced from 65 to 60 only two years ago.

“I don’t think we contemplated a 59-year-old leading the Open Championship going into the back nine on the final day at the time,” said Royal and Ancient Club chief executive Peter Dawson today.

Failing to win means that as things stand Watson’s 33rd Open appearance at St Andrews next July will be his last as a past champion, though there are other routes to keep his career in the championship going.

“Every year after the Open we look at the exemptions and no doubt we’ll look at this one. It’s much too early to say what, if anything, we’ll do with it, but we’ll certainly be looking at it.

“I’m sure if someone at age 59 had been winning the championship, bringing down the age limit would have been lower on the agenda (when the reduction was made). But we brought it down in order to give more spaces in the championship to younger players allegedly in their prime to compete.

“Tom Watson was amongst those consulted on the matter and offered his support to our objective.”

The change was also made, of course, before 53-year-old Greg Norman led with nine holes to play at Royal Birkdale last year.

Watson would have earned himself a 10-year exemption if he had holed his eight-foot par putt on the final green, but next year will be his last unless one of the following things happen: the rule is changed, he finishes in the top 10 at St Andrews, he wins the 2010 British Senior Open or he qualifies.

Latest leading positions:

1 Tiger Woods 10.82pts, 2 Phil Mickelson 8.53, 3 Paul Casey 6.60, 4 Kenny Perry 6.21, 5 Sergio Garcia 6.02, 6 Steve Stricker 5.88, 7 Henrik Stenson 5.88, 8 Geoff Ogilvy 5.74, 9 Stewart Cink 5.04, 10 Jim Furyk 5.01

11 Vijay Singh 4.84, 12 Martin Kaymer 4.80, 13 Camilo Villegas 4.69, 14 Lee Westwood 4.65, 15 Sean O'Hair 4.39, 16 Padraig Harrington4.33, 17 Anthony Kim 4.22, 18 Robert Karlsson 4.21, 19 Ian Poulter 3.97, 20 Lucas Glover 3.94

Other leading Europeans:

23 Ross Fisher, 25 Luke Donald, 26 Rory McIlroy, 32 Soren Kjeldsen, 37 Alvaro Quiros, 39 Miguel Angel Jimenez, 41 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, 45 Soren Hansen, 46 Oliver Wilson, 47 Graeme McDowell, 50 Justin Rose, 57 Peter Hanson, 61 Anders Hansen, 64 Francesco Molinari, 71 Nick Dougherty, 80 Thomas Levet, 83 Anthony Wall, 92 Johan Edfors