Montgomerie slips out of top 50

Colin Montgomerie’s first-round defeat to Ernie Els in the HSBC World Match Play Championship last Thursday has cost him a place in the world’s top 50.

Montgomerie drops from 48th to 51st, while Els’ victory yesterday – his seventh in the event – takes him up from fifth to fourth.

Latest leading positions:

1 Tiger Woods 23.60pts, 2 Phil Mickelson 9.54, 3 Jim Furyk 7.79, 4 Ernie Els 7.51, 5 Steve Stricker 7.18, 6 Adam Scott 6.31, 7 Padraig Harrington 5.96, 8 KJ Choi 5.64, 9 Sergio Garcia 5.61, 10 Rory Sabbatini 5.55

11 Vijay Singh 5.41, 12 Justin Rose 5.40, 13 Geoff Ogilvy 5.36, 14 Zach Johnson 4.80, 15 Henrik Stenson 4.76, 16 Luke Donald 4.58, 17 Angel Cabrera 4.33, 18 Niclas Fasth 3.96, 19 Trevor Immelman 3.94, 20 Aaron Baddeley

Other leading Europeans:

22 Paul Casey, 27 Ian Poulter, 34 Lee Westwood, 43 Soren Hansen, 46 Anders Hansen, 47 Nick Dougherty, 50 Bradley Dredge, 51 Colin Montgomerie, 55 Robert Karlsson, 57 Carl Pettersson, 58 Jose Maria Olazabal, 62 Miguel Angel Jimenez, 64 Mikko Ilonen, 67 Bernhard Langer, 71 Peter Hanson, 77 Raphael Jacquelin, 87 Simon Dyson, 90 Thomas Bjorn, 94 Johan Edfors, 95 Phillip Archer, 97 Markus Brier