Harrington back in top 10

Padraig Harrington is back into the world’s top 10 thanks to his third-place finish at the Northern Trust Open in Los Angeles.

Phil Mickelson’s victory cuts Tiger Woods’ lead at the head of the rankings to under 10 points again – it is still a massive gulf, of course – and opens the gap between himself and third-placed Steve Stricker.

It also puts him into an automatic qualifying position for the United States’ Ryder Cup team for the first time in their race.

Latest leading world ranking positions:

1 Tiger Woods 19.71pts, 2 Phil Mickelson 10.18, 3 Steve Stricker 6.48, 4 Ernie Els 6.23, 5 Adam Scott 6.05, 6 Justin Rose 5.77, 7 Jim Furyk 5.75, 8 KJ Choi 5.73, 9 Rory Sabbatini 5.62, 10 Padraig Harrington 5.24

11 Vijay Singh 4.99, 12 Henrik Stenson 4.60, 13 Sergio Garcia 4.50, 14 Angel Cabrera 4.07, 15 Geoff Ogilvy 3.96, 16 Luke Donald 3.94, 17 Zach Johnson 3.74, 18 Aaron Baddeley 3.68, 19 Lee Westwood 3.56, 20 Trevor Immelman 3.31

Other leading Europeans:

21 Martin Kaymer, 24 Niclas Fasth, 25 Ian Poulter, 26 Paul Casey, 39 Robert Karlsson, 40 Soren Hansen, 42 Miguel Angel Jimenez, 46 Nick Dougherty, 54 Anders Hansen, 57 Peter Hanson, 60 Bradley Dredge, 62 Colin Montgomerie, 64 Daniel Chopra, 70 Soren Kjeldsen, 71 Simon Dyson, 73 Carl Pettersson, 74 Steve Webster, 76 Mikko Ilonen, 90 Bernhard Langer, 91 Graeme McDowell, 92 Ross Fisher, 94 Ross McGowan, 95 Raphael Jacquelin, 98 Fredrik Jacobson, 100 Joost Luiten