Soren Kjeldsen's victory at the Volvo Masters has not only clinched him a place in next year's US Open — it has also put him on course for a debut in The Masters next April.

The 33-year-old Dane, who beat England's Anthony Wall and German Martin Kaymer by two at Valderrama for only his second European Tour victory in 310 starts, leaps from 86th to a personal-best 47th in the new world rankings.

The top 50 at the end of the year qualify for Augusta. As it stands, Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell are the only two Irish players to qualify automatically for the Masters although Darren Clarke (62nd) has four more events to book his place in Georgia.

Lee Westwood's joint fourth place takes him back into the top 10 for the first time in more than five-and-a-half years. Having reached a career-high fourth in the rankings following his Order of Merit triumph in 2000, Westwood then crashed outside the top 250.

Latest leading positions:

1 Tiger Woods 14.41pts
2 Phil Mickelson 8.31
3 Sergio Garcia 7.78
4 Vijay Singh 7.65
5 Padraig Harrington 7.28
6 Robert Karlsson 5.28
7 Camilo Villegas 5.27
8 Anthony Kim 5.06
9 Lee Westwood 4.98
10 Ernie Els 4.96

11 Jim Furyk 4.85
12 Henrik Stenson 4.72
13 Steve Stricker 4.63
14 Stewart Cink 4.57
15 KJ Choi 4.39
16 Adam Scott 4.29
17 Justin Rose 4.20
18 Geoff Ogilvy 4.15
19 Kenny Perry 4.02
20 Miguel Angel Jimenez 3.81

Other leading Europeans:

25 Ian Poulter, 26 Martin Kaymer, 27 Luke Donald, 33 Graeme McDowell, 34 Ross Fisher, 40 Paul Casey, 42 Soren Hansen, 47 Soren Kjeldsen, 50 Carl Pettersson, 51 Fredrik Jacobson, 55 Oliver Wilson, 57 Peter Hanson, 62 Darren Clarke, 68 Anders Hansen, 69 Nick Dougherty, 77 Peter Hedblom, 79 Rory McIlroy, 83 Niclas Fasth, 88 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, 90 Alvaro Quiros, 94 Paul McGinley, 96 Gregory Havret