Golf:Tiger Woods, expected to announce later this week that he is returning to action at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on Thursday week, is out of the world's top 20 for the first time since January 1997.
The man who held the number one spot for more than 11 years in 10 different spells has not played since May 12th because of knee and Achilles tendon injuries.
He has dropped from eighth to 21st in the rankings in that time and last Wednesday announced that he will not have New Zealand caddie Steve Williams by his side on his return.
Meanwhile, Sergio Garcia has earned a place in next week’s world championship by keeping his place in the game’s top 50.
Back to form with two successive top-10 finishes in majors and a play-off defeat in Germany in between, Garcia is 48th going into this week’s Greenbrier Classic in West Virginia.
Alex Noren’s runaway win in Sweden moved him up from 92nd to 70th, but he already had a place in Akron thanks to his Wales Open victory last month.
Rory McIlroy remains the highest-ranked Irish player at fourth with Graeme McDowell down to 12th. Darren Clarke is 31st while Pádraig Harrington is down at 64th.
The European Tour moves to Killaraney for this week’s Irish Open where spectators will be treated to a host of Irish Major champions. Clarke, McIlroy, McDowell and Harrington are all in the field.
Latest World Rankings:
1 Luke Donald 9.72pts, 2 Lee Westwood 8.33, 3 Martin Kaymer 7.26,
4 Rory McIlroy 7.06
, 5 Steve Stricker 6.94, 6 Phil Mickelson 6.27, 7 Dustin Johnson 5.75, 8 Jason Day 5.44, 9 Matt Kuchar 5.38, 10 Nick Watney 5.24, 11 Charl Schwartzel 5.21,
12 Graeme McDowell 5.20
, 13 Bubba Watson 4.77, 14 KJ Choi 4.71, 15 Paul Casey 4.62, 16 Ian Poulter 4.45, 17 Adam Scott 4.05, 18 Hunter Mahan 3.78, 19 Robert Karlsson 3.75, 20 Retief Goosen 3.67
Other leading Europeans:
22 Francesco Molinari, 25 Alvaro Quiros, 27 Martin Laird, 29 Miguel Angel Jimenez, 30 Matteo Manassero,
31 Darren Clarke
, 33 Justin Rose, 40 Edoardo Molinari, 41 Peter Hanson, 42 Anders Hansen, 48 Sergio Garcia, 58 Fredrik
Jacobson, 61 Thomas Bjorn, 63 Ross Fisher,
64 Pádraig Harrington
, 67 Simon Dyson, 70 Alexander Noren, 71 Raphael Jacquelin, 74 Nicolas Colsaerts, 83 Fredrik Andersson Hed, 87 Gregory Bourdy, 90 David Horsey, 94 Pablo Larrazabal, 97 Johan Edfors, 98 Jamie Donaldson, 99 Brian Davis.
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