World Rankings: Darren Clarke broke into the top 100 of this week's world rankings after finishing tied sixth at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio where his stablemate Lee Westwood finished joint runner-up to also move up the standings.
With just over one week to his 40th birthday Clarke had a fine weekend at Firestone Country Club where he closed with rounds of 65, 67 to earn €140,243.36. That was sufficient to move the Ryder Cup hopeful up to 87th in the latest rankings.
His International Sports Management (ISM) stablemate Westwood climbed six places to 12th after finishing second alongside Australia's Stuart Appleby, one shot behind winner Vijay Singh.
The Fijian shot a final round 68 for a 10-under 270 winning aggregate to secure the €860,584.24 winner's cheque. It was Singh's first win since taking the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March 2007, his 32nd on the PGA Tour, and took him to fourth in the world, a jump of 11 places.
British Open champion Pádraig Harrington (tied 20th at Firestone) is one place ahead of Singh and remains in third, while an injured Tiger Woods still tops the standings by a considerable margin. Phil Mickelson, who tied fourth alongside South Africa's Retief Goosen at Firestone, holds second.
Graeme McDowell is the second highest ranked Irish player in 31st. The 28-year-old had a poor tournament in Akron as he struggled on the greens to finish well down the field. Paul McGinley, who tied 27th, is 116th in this week's rankings.
Elsewhere Parker McLachlin won the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open at Montreux Golf and Country Club in Reno. He secured his maiden PGA Tour victory by a comfortable seven shots and improves 95 places to 163 in the latest rankings.
Latest Leading World Rankings:
1 Tiger Woods 18.73pts
2 Phil Mickelson 9.63
3 Pádraig Harrington 6.24
4 Vijay Singh 5.82
5 Ernie Els 5.27
6 Sergio Garcia 5.26
7 Geoff Ogilvy 5.23
8 Adam Scott 5.22
9 Stewart Cink 5.21
10 Steve Stricker 5.08
11 Henrik Stenson 4.97
12 Lee Westwood 4.84
13 Jim Furyk 4.84
14 KJ Choi 4.76
15 Anthony Kim 4.70
16 Justin Rose 4.65
17 Kenny Perry 4.45
18 Trevor Immelman 4.22
19 Miguel Angel Jimenez 4.08
20 Rory Sabbatini 4.07
Selected Irish Rankings:
31 Graeme McDowell
87 Darren Clarke
116 Paul McGinley
157 Peter Lawrie
162 Rory McIlroy
178 Damien McGrane
297 Gareth Maybin
313 Gary Murphy
