Golf – World Rankings:New British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen climbed 39 places to 15th in the latest world rankings while Rory McIlroy moved to a career high of seventh after he finished tied third at the Home of Golf in St Andrews yesterday.
South African Oosthuizen fired a closing 71 on the Old Course to win by a massive seven stroke margin (16-under-par 272) from Lee Westwood (70) in second place. The 27-year-old winner also picked up the €1,006,000 winner’s cheque after securing his first major title.
Westwood remains third in the standings but is now only 0.24 points behind Phil
Mickelson in second, while number one Tiger Woods could be in range when they all next play at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio, on August 5th-8th.
McIlroy was left to rue an untimely round of 80 in the second round at St Andrews but the 21-year-old fought back over the weekend with rounds of 68, 69 to secure third alongside Sweden’s Henrik Stenson and England’s Paul Casey. It meant McIlroy moved up two places to seventh in the latest standings.
Graeme McDowell, who tied 23rd in the third major of the season, is next of the Irish and unchanged at 11th while Pádraig Harrington, who missed the cut, drops two places to 17th.
Irish Open champion Shane Lowry is the only other Irish player inside the top 100 at 79th. The 23-year-old finished one under on his major debut at St Andrews.
As for Darren Clarke he dropped off the pace over the weekend to finish level par. It means the 41-year-old is 102nd in the rankings but had hoped to get get inside the top 100 to secure an invite to the USPGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin next month - the final major of the season.
Latest World Rankings (after the British Open at St Andrews):
1 Tiger Woods 10.14
2 Phil Mickelson 9.38
3 Lee Westwood 9.14
4 Steve Stricker 7.46
5 Jim Furyk 6.61
6 Ernie Els 5.79
7 Rory McIlroy 5.72
8 Paul Casey 5.69
9 Luke Donald 5.54
10 Ian Poulter 5.38
11 Graeme McDowell 4.95
12 Martin Kaymer 4.93
13 Anthony Kim 4.83
14 Robert Allenby 4.37
15 Louis Oosthuizen 4.12
16 Retief Goosen 4.10
17 Pádraig Harrington 4.00
18 Justin Rose 3.99
19 Sean O'Hair 3.87
20 Zach Johnson 3.86
Selected others:
79 Shane Lowry 1.81
102 Darren Clarke 1.56
127 Gareth Maybin 1.31
147 Peter Lawrie 1.20
179 Damien McGrane 1.01