World Golf Rankings: Thongchai Jaidee's second European Tour victory of the season has put him into the world's top 50 for the first time in his career — and into the field for next week's Players Championship in Florida.
The former Thai paratrooper, winner of the Indonesia Open at the start of March, added the Ballantine’s Championship in South Korea thanks to a birdie at the first hole of a play-off with Spaniard Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and home player Kang Sung-hoon.
He goes up from 73rd to 49th on the day the world’s top 50 qualify for the prestigious event at Sawgrass starting on Thursday week.
Fernandez-Castano would have been the one vaulting into the top 50 for the first time if he had triumphed, but the British Masters champion’s third successive runner-up finish leaves him 53rd in the rankings.
In America Jerry Kelly ended seven years without a win when he lifted the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, and the 42-year-old improves 63 places to 78th.
Meanwhile, Phil Mickelson has another chance to take the world number one spot for the first time when he and Tiger Woods compete in this week’s Quail Hollow Championship in North Carolina.
In their first appearance since their dramatic head-to-head battle on the final day of The Masters — both climbed from seven adrift to only one behind before slipping back to fifth and sixth — Mickelson will have to win and Woods finish well down the field for there to be a change at the top.
Latest leading positions:
1 Tiger Woods 9.52pts, 2 Phil Mickelson 8.45, 3 Sergio Garcia 6.97, 4 Geoff Ogilvy 6.38, 5 Kenny Perry 5.66, 6 Paul Casey 5.66, 7 Padraig Harrington 5.49, 8 Vijay Singh 5.27, 9 Henrik Stenson 4.78, 10 Camilo Villegas 4.78, 11 Robert Karlsson 4.71, 12 Steve Stricker 4.45, 13 Anthony Kim 4.27, 14 Jim Furyk 4.07, 15 Lee Westwood 3.92, 16 Ernie Els 3.91, 17 Rory McIlroy 3.90, 18 Angel Cabrera 3.59, 19 Mike Weir 3.41, 20 Luke Donald 3.38.
Other leading Europeans:
24 Martin Kaymer, 25 Alvaro Quiros, 29 Justin Rose, 31 Miguel Angel Jimenez, 33 Ross Fisher, 40 Ian Poulter, 43 Oliver Wilson, 46 Soren Kjeldsen, 48 Graeme McDowell, 53 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, 63 Anders Hansen, 65 Peter Hanson, 67 Soren Hansen, 76 Francesco Molinari, 85 Darren Clarke, 88 Carl Pettersson, 90 Anthony Wall, 96 Alexander Noren.
