Top three stay clear of Mickelson

US Tour news: Phil Mickelson's triumph at the BellSouth Classic has failed to move him up a single place in the world rankings.

Mickelson will go into the Masters still as world number four behind Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen.

The left-hander would have gone third if Goosen had finished outside the top 11 in Atlanta, but the South African was joint fourth.

The world number four won the BellSouth Classic in Atlanta on Sunday night by an incredible 13 shots, the third biggest margin of victory on the US Tour in more than 50 years.

And Mickelson missed out on setting a new record of 33 birdies in a tournament simply because he was too good - he got two eagles instead.

The second of those came on the final hole with a 25-foot putt, giving the left-hander a 28 under par total. A record for the event by five.

Play was delayed for 45 minutes because of the threat of lightning after he reached the 15th tee, but Mickelson went on to record the 28th PGA Tour won of his career by holing that eagle putt at the last.

Mickelson also became the tournament's first repeat winner since compatriot Hale Irwin in 1977. Irwin is among seven players who have triumphed twice at the BellSouth.

"It was certainly a fun week," said Mickelson.

"I was very pleased with the way I played, obviously, and it really means a lot to actually have the scores reflect the way I felt. In fact, maybe I could have gone a little bit lower. I didn't try to think about winning by 11 or 13. I wanted to make sure.

"Even though I had an eight-shot lead, I just didn't want to get things going sideways on a golf course like this that can be so penalising."

Jose Maria Olazabal, one of four players beaten in a play-off by Mickelson last year, shared second place with Zach Johnson.

Luke Donald, recovering from the shock of finishing his third round with a quadruple bogey nine, moved up to joint 10th with a 66. David Howell was 24th, while Padraig Harrington fell away to 51st spot with a 75.

WORLD RANKINGS

1 Tiger Woods (USA) 18.09pts ave

2 Vijay Singh (Fij) 8.72

3 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 8.28

4 Phil Mickelson (USA) 8.13

5 Ernie Els (Rsa) 7.07

6 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 6.58

7 Jim Furyk (USA) 5.6

8 David Toms (USA) 5.54

9 Luke Donald (Eng) 4.86

10 Chris DiMarco (USA) 4.72

Also: 15 Darren Clarke (NIrl) 4.16; 29 Padraig Harrington (Irl) 3.35; 32 Paul McGinley (Irl) 3.27; 81 Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 1.67