Victorious Monty climbs rankings

Colin Montgomerie is back into the world’s top 30 as a result of his first victory for 19 months – and European Open runner-up Niclas Fasth has made the top 20 for the first time.

Montgomerie had fallen from 17th at the start of the year to 48th, but stopped his decline with a third-place finish in the French Open a week ago and then yesterday at the K Club near Dublin fired a closing 65 to pip Fasth by one.

The Swede’s last three finishes have been fourth in the US Open, first at the BMW International Open and now second.

He climbs to 20th, relegating Justin Rose to 21st, while Montgomerie is now 30th just ahead of Ian Poulter.

Ireland's Padraig Harrington is in tenth place.

South Korean KJ Choi won his second US Tour event in five weeks at the AT&T National and he is up to a career-high 13th.

Latest leading positions:

1 Tiger Woods 19.78pts,

2 Jim Furyk 8.70,

3 Phil Mickelson 8.50,

4 Adam Scott 6.68,

5 Ernie Els 6.60,

6 Vijay Singh 6.18,

7 Henrik Stenson 5.76,

8 Geoff Ogilvy 5.59,

9 Luke Donald 5.23,

10 Padraig Harrington 4.90

11 Retief Goosen 4.89,

12 Sergio Garcia 4.80,

13 KJ Choi 4.79,

14 Rory Sabbatini 4.69,

15 Zach Johnson 4.60,

16 Steve Stricker 4.39,

17 Paul Casey 4.32,

18 Angel Cabrera 4.32,

19 Trevor Immelman 4.20,

20 Niclas Fasth 3.96

Other leading Europeans:

21 Justin Rose,

30 Colin Montgomerie,

31 Ian Poulter,

34 Robert Karlsson,

35 Jose Maria Olazabal,

42 David Howell,

44 Anders Hansen,

46 Carl Pettersson,

49 Lee Westwood,

52 Bradley Dredge,

59 Raphael Jacquelin,

61 Miguel Angel Jimenez,

67 Bernhard Langer,

71 Johan Edfors,

75 Thomas Bjorn,

86 Simon Dyson,

92 Anthony Wall,

98 Nick Dougherty,

99 Peter Hanson.