Lee moves ahead of Rory in rankings

LEE WESTWOOD has taken the world number two spot off Rory McIlroy with his seven-shot victory at the Thailand Championship.

Ian Poulter, meanwhile, is back in the top 20 and will end the year 16th, thanks to his three-stroke win at the JBWere Masters in Australia. England now have five of the world’s top 20, led, of course, by number one Luke Donald.

Spain’s Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, meanwhile, moves back into the top 50 just in time to secure a Masters debut at Augusta next April. Of the year-ending top 10, American Webb Simpson has made the biggest leap forward, all the way from 213rd to 10th.

Tiger Woods has fallen from second to 23rd in 2011, Phil Mickelson from fourth to 14th and Jim Furyk from fifth to 50th, while the others to drop out of the top 10 are Graeme McDowell (sixth to 13th) and Paul Casey (eighth to 20th).

Leading positions in the world golf rankings at the end of 2011 (final 2010 positions in brackets): 1 (9) L Donald 10.03pts, 2 (1) L Westwood 8.06, 3 (10) R McIlroy 7.77, 4 (3) M Kaymer 6.55, 5 (24) A Scott 5.50, 6 (7) S Stricker 5.33, 7 (14) D Johnson 5.27, 8 (38) J Day 5.07, 9 (34) C Schwartzel 5.06, 10 (213) W Simpson 5.03, 11 (13) M Kuchar 4.71, 12 (35), N Watney 4.70, 13 (6) G McDowell 4.55, 14 (4) P Mickelson 4.48, 15 (47) KJ Choi 4.31, 16 (11) I Poulter 3.88, 17 (78) S Garcia 3.87, 18 (30) J Rose 3.85, 19 (19) H Mahan 3.76, 20 (8) P Casey 3.73.

Other leading Europeans: 22 (49) A Quiros, 24 (17) R Karlsson, 28 (64) S Dyson, 34 (70) A Hansen, 35 (124) T Bjorn, 39 (131) F Jacobson, 41 (15) F Molinari, 42 (40) P Hanson, 44 (27) M Angel Jimenez, 47 (50) M Laird, 48 (98) D Clarke, 49 (92) G Fernandez-Castano, 58 (62) M Manassero, 64 (97) J Luiten, 65 (18) E Molinari, 66 (141) A Noren, 72 (152) N Colsaerts, 77 (364) P Larrazabal, 83 (244) P Lawrie, 85 (23) P Harrington, 86 (100) J Donaldson, 90 (113) G Havret, 91 (209) D Lynn, 100 (33) R Fisher.