Watson’s major ranking boost

TOM WATSON’s agonising play-off defeat at The Open has still improved his world ranking an incredible 1,269 places – from 1,374th to 105th.

If he had holed his eight-foot putt on the final green and become, at 59, the oldest major winner in history by 11 years, Watson would today be ranked 45th in the world.

The title was, of course, taken by his fellow American Stewart Cink instead and he moves up from 33th to ninth as a result.