Rankings: Tiger Woods' eight shot victory at the BMW Championship last night has seen the world number one increase his lead at the top of the rankings to more than it has been for the past 12 months.
Woods, who began the day with a seven shot cushion over American Brandt Snedeker and Australian Marc Leishman, closed with a three-under 68 to win for a fifth time at Cog Hill.
It was Woods 71st PGA Tour title leaving him just two short of tying Jack Nicklaus for second on the all-time list.
"If you would have asked me at the beginning of the year, you guys probably wouldn't have predicted I would have had the year like I have," Woods told reporters.
"To have the opportunity to win just about every tournament I have been in . . . to come off knee surgery and have this type of year and be this consistent is something I'm very proud of.
"Absolutely this is one of my best years, no doubt about that."
Despite not challenging on the final day, Padraig Harrington’s end of season revival has seem him climb another rung on the rankings ladder to eighth.
Ian Poulter has missed out on the Tour Championship in Atlanta next week by 0.46 points after a shot into water on the final hole .
A closing par in Chicago would have kept the Ryder Cup star in the top 30 for the final leg of the FedEx Cup play-offs, but he bogeyed and so exited the series with 1,531 points against Australian John Senden’s 1,532.
Luke Donald did par the last hole and that got him to Atlanta in 29th spot, aided by Senden’s double bogey at the 17th and Brandt Snedeker four-putting the 18th green for a triple-bogey seven.
Harrington and Sergio Garcia were the top Europeans in the event in joint sixth place. But that was not enough to get Garcia into the Tour Championship — while, by moving up only to sixth in the points standings, Harrington cannot now win the $10 million bonus.
That will be fought out between top five Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Zach Johnson and Heath Slocum.
South African James Kingston is up from 140th to 74th in the rankings thanks to his play-off victory over Dane Anders Hansen at the Mercedes-Benz Championship in Cologne.
Latest World Rankings: 1 Tiger Woods 16.04 points, 2 Steve Stricker 7.94, 3 Phil Mickelson 7.54, 4 Paul Casey 6.48, 5 Henrik Stenson 5.93, 6 Kenny Perry 5.90, 7 Sergio Garcia 5.84, 8 Padraig Harrington5.72, 9 Jim Furyk 5.63, 10 Geoff Ogilvy 5.52, 11 Lee Westwood 5.19, 12 Stewart Cink 5.10, 13 Martin Kaymer 4.94, 14 Vijay Singh 4.62, 15 Sean O'Hair 4.42, 16 Camilo Villegas 4.42, 17 Lucas Glover 4.37, 18 Zach Johnson 4.29, 19 Retief Goosen 4.18, 20 Anthony Kim 4.10.
Other leading Europeans: 21 Ian Poulter, 22 Robert Karlsson, 24 Rory McIlroy, 26 Ross Fisher, 28 Luke Donald, 32 Soren Kjeldsen, 38 Miguel Angel Jimenez, 42 Soren Hansen, 43 Alvaro Quiros, 44 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, 45 Oliver Wilson, 46 Graeme McDowell, 50 Anders Hansen, 57 Justin Rose, 61 Chris Wood, 64 Peter Hanson, 66 Francesco Molinari, 75 Alexander Noren, 86 Nick Dougherty, 90 Simon Dyson, 95 Anthony Wall, 96 Thomas Levet.
FedEx Cup Points: 1 Tiger Woods (USA) 7196.00pts, 2 Steve Stricker (USA) 5692.00, 3 Jim Furyk (USA) 3108.00, 4 Zach Johnson (USA) 3031.00, 5 Heath Slocum (USA) 3005.00, 6 Padraig Harrington(Irl) 2633.00, 7 Sean O'Hair (USA) 2624.00, 8 Scott Verplank (USA) 2416.00, 9 Kenny Perry (USA) 2318.00, 10 Jason Dufner (USA) 2224.00, 11 Dustin Johnson (USA) 2212.00, 12 Nick Watney (USA) 2170.00, 13 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 2126.00, 14 Phil Mickelson (USA) 2110.00, 15 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 2091.00, 16 Marc Leishman (Aus) 2070.00, 17 Brian Gay (USA) 1989.00, 18 Kevin Na (USA) 1976.00, 19 David Toms (USA) 1951.00, 20 Lucas Glover (USA) 1919.00
Race to Dubai: 1 Martin Kaymer (Ger) €1982055.00, 2 Paul Casey (Eng) €1965150.00, 3 Rory McIlroy(NIrl) €1726927.00, 4 Lee Westwood (Eng) €1684452.00, 5 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) €1606805.00, 6 Ross Fisher (Eng) €1524347.00, 7 Angel Cabrera (Arg) €1385499.00, 8 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) €1232109.00, 9 Oliver Wilson (Eng) €1217865.00, 10 Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) €1130735.00, 11 Sergio Garcia (Spa) €1095031.00, 12 Henrik Stenson (Swe) €1040991.00, 13 Yong-Eun Yang (Kor) €1037635.00, 14 Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) €954013.00, 15 Alvaro Quiros (Spa) €935451.00, 16 Soren Hansen (Den) €934894.00, 17 Peter Hanson (Swe) €911175.00, 18 Anders Hansen (Den) €891342.00, 19 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) €872832.00, 20 Ernie Els (Rsa) €847963.00
