Welshman Bradley Dredge has earned himself a debut in the Masters at Augusta next April by just 0.01 world ranking points from England's Justin Rose.
Even though he did not play last week, Dredge leapfrogs over Rose into 50th place in the rankings and since there are no counting tournaments in the two weeks that remain of the year the Masters spot is his.
Lee Westwood's eighth place in the South African Airways Open on Sunday means he moves up one position to 49th and so secures his eighth Masters start. He is one of a record 26 Europeans who have already qualified for the first major of 2007.
Rose, married at the weekend, has not been back to the Masters since he led at halfway in 2004 before crashing to a third round 81. He could still make it, though. The world's top 50 the week before are also invited, as are the top 10 on the US Tour money list.
Joining Dredge as a debutant in the event will be England's Kenneth Ferrie, in thanks to his sixth place finish at the US Open, Scot Richie Ramsay, the first British player to win the US Amateur since 1911, Swedes Robert Karlsson and Johan Edfors and Frenchman Julien Guerrier, winner of the British Amateur championship.
Edfors, who 13 months ago was at the European Tour qualifying school, has climbed from 410th to 48th in the world in 2006 and Karlsson from 216th to 31st.
The other huge leaps into the top 50 came from Indian Jeev Milkha Singh and American Brett Wetterich. Singh began the year 376th and is now 37th, while Wetterich jumped from 294th to 40th.
There are three changes in the top 10, where Tiger Woods has reigned as number one all season long, of course. In come Padraig Harrington (17th to eighth), Luke Donald (13th to ninth) and Australia's US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy (50th to 10th) and out go Sergio Garcia (sixth to 11th), Colin Montgomerie (eighth to 17th) and Chris DiMarco (10th to 20th).
Ernie Els's South African Open victory, his first of the year, lifts him from eighth back to the fifth spot where he started the year.
Final 2006 rankings(positions at end of 2005 in brackets, Irish in bold):
1 (1) Tiger Woods 20.41pts, 2 (7) Jim Furyk 8.88, 3 (3) Phil Mickelson 7.17, 4 (9) Adam Scott 7.03, 5 (5) Ernie Els 6.05, 6 (4) Retief Goosen 5.61, 7 (2) Vijay Singh 5.58, 8 (17) Padraig Harrington5.46, 9 (13) Luke Donald 5.25, 10 (50) Geoff Ogilvy 5.21 11 (6) Sergio Garcia 5.12, 12 (32) Henrik Stenson 4.62, 13 (62) Trevor Immelman 4.58, 14 (11) David Howell 3.80, 15 (52) Paul Casey 3.75, 16 (19) Davis Love 3.69, 17 (8) Colin Montgomerie 3.64, 18 (26) Jose Maria Olazabal 3.54, 19 (15) David Toms 3.46, 20 (10) Chris DiMarco 3.46
Other leading Europeans:
31 (216) Robert Karlsson, 34 (59) Ian Poulter, 35 (18) Darren Clarke, 36 (53) Carl Pettersson, 42 (60) Niclas Fasth, 46 (22) Thomas Bjorn, 48 (410) Johan Edfors, 49 (41) Lee Westwood, 50 (83) Bradley Dredge, 51 (86) Justin Rose, 59 (265) Anthony Wall, 64 (76) Paul Broadhurst, 71 (21) Paul McGinley, 73 (40), Miguel Angel Jimenez, 76 (153) Jose Manuel Lara, 83 (117) Simon Khan), 88 (197) Simon Dyson, 89 (79) Stephen Dodd, 94 (88) Greg Owen, 97 (107) Jesper Parnevik
Europeans in Masters field: Seve Ballesteros, Thomas Bjorn, Paul Casey, Darren Clarke, Luke Donald, Bradley Dredge, Johan Edfors, Nick Faldo, Niclas Fasth, Kenneth Ferrie, Sergio Garcia, Julien Guerrier, Padraig Harrington, David Howell, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Robert Karlsson, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle, Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal, Carl Pettersson, Ian Poulter, Richie Ramsay, Henrik Stenson, Lee Westwood, Ian Woosnam
