Owen just short of Masters spot

Greg Owen’s double bogey, bogey finish to lose the Bay Hill Invitational by one has left him tantalisingly short of the world top 50 spot he needs to qualify for the US Masters in a fortnight.

Owen moves up from 95th to 53rd, a mere 0.07 points behind 50th-placed John Daly. His last chance to make it to Augusta for the first time comes at this week’s Players Championship at Sawgrass.

Swede Carl Pettersson is 51st, but already has a Masters debut secured because of his finish on last season’s US Tour.

Darren Clarke is back in the top 20 thanks to his third-place finish, but Ian Poulter’s missed cut drops him to 69th and probably leaves him requiring a top-three finish this week for Augusta.

Latest rankings:

1 Tiger Woods 17.81pts, 2 Vijay Singh 8.70, 3 Retief Goosen 7.54, 4 Phil Mickelson 7.24, 5 Ernie Els 6.84, 6 Sergio Garcia 6.43, 7 David Toms 5.60, 8 Jim Furyk 5.32, 9 Adam Scott 4.95, 10 Luke Donald 4.94.

11 Chris DiMarco 4.83, 12 Colin Montgomerie 4.26, 13 David Howell 4.25, 14 Michael Campbell 4.13, 15 Kenny Perry 4.10, 16 Henrik Stenson 4.04, 17 Darren Clarke 4.03, 18 Davis Love 4.02, 19 Chad Campbell 4.01, 20 Rory Sabbatini.

Other leading Europeans:

24 Padraig Harrington, 27 Jose Maria Olazabal, 28 Paul McGinley, 33 Thomas Bjorn, 37 Lee Westwood, 45 Miguel Angel Jimenez, 51 Carl Pettersson, 53 Greg Owen, 56 Niclas Fasth, 57 Bernhard Langer, 59 Paul Casey, 60 Nick Dougherty, 69 Ian Poulter, 70 Paul Broadhurst, 72 Graeme McDowell, 73 Jesper Parnevik, 80 Kenneth Ferrie, 83 Raphael Jacquelin, 85 David Lynn, 86 Justin Rose, 90 Bradley Dredge, 95 Stephen Dodd, 98 Fredrik Jacobson, 99 Anders Hansen.