Darren Clarke will head to Walton Heath in Surrey early next week in a bid to qualify for the upcoming US Open as his slide down the rankings continues.
While Anders Hansen today confirmed he has moved into the top 50
and qualified for the second major of the year thanks to his win at
Wentworth, Clarke missed a fifth successive cut on Friday and is
now down to 93rd in the
rankings.
Hansen won the BMW PGA Championship after a play-off with Justin Rose and the new world rankings show he is up from 151st to 49th. The top 50 earn places in the second major of the year and the 36-year-old will therefore make his US Open debut at Oakmont next month
Rose is up to a career-high 17th, just behind Paul Casey, while the only change in the top 10 sees Luke Donald move above Retief Goosen into ninth spot.
Padraig Harrington, whose challenge fell away after a disappointing weekend, remains the highest-placed Irish player and overtakes Sergio Garcia to move into 11th position.
South African Rory Sabbatini improves only from 16th to 14th with his win in the US Tour's Colonial tournament in Texas. Sabbatini beat Jim Furyk and 49-year-old Bernhard Langer in a play-off. Furyk remains at third behind Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, while Langer moves back into the top 100 at 86th.
South African Tim Clark had an even tighter squeeze than Hansen in making it into the US Open field. Last year's Masters runner-up finished in a six-way tie for 12th in Texas - and if it had been a seven-way tie he would not have hung onto 50th spot in the world rankings.
The full list of players earning US Open exemptions today is as follows: Charles Howell, John Rollins (US Tour top 10), Justin Rose, Robert Allenby, Aaron Baddeley, Jose Maria Olazabal, Scott Verplank, Angel Cabrera, Chris DiMarco, Vaughn Taylor, Lee Westwood, Charl Schwartzel, Anders Hansen, Tim Clark (world top 50).
Two spots were also available off the European Tour Order of Merit, but Henrik Stenson and Retief Goosen are already exempt.
Latest leading positions:
1 Tiger Woods 20.28pts, 2 Phil Mickelson 9.52, 3 Jim Furyk 7.87, 4 Adam Scott 7.02, 5 Ernie Els 6.75, 6 Vijay Singh 6.25, 7 Henrik Stenson 6.11, 8 Geoff Ogilvy 5.80, 9 Luke Donald 5.47, 10 Retief Goosen 5.40
11 Padraig Harrington5.29, 12 Sergio Garcia 5.26, 13 Zach Johnson 4.73, 14 Rory Sabbatini 4.66, 15 Trevor Immelman 4.52, 16 Paul Casey 4.42, 17 Justin Rose 3.67, 18 Stewart Cink 3.65, 19 Charles Howell 3.60, 20 Steve Stricker 3.47
Other leading Europeans:
27 Jose Maria Olazabal, 29 Ian Poulter, 30 Robert Karlsson, 33 David Howell, 36 Colin Montgomerie, 38 Niclas Fasth, 44 Lee Westwood, 47 Carl Pettersson, 49 Anders Hansen, 60 Raphael Jacquelin, 63 Johan Edfors, 65 Miguel Angel Jimenez, 66 Bradley Dredge, 72 Thomas Bjorn, 73 Simon Dyson, 86 Bernhard Langer, 89 Anthony Wall, 93 Darren Clarke, 97 Markus Brier.
