Monty closes in on top 50 rankings

Colin Montgomerie still has to climb four more places in the world rankings to qualify for the Masters at Augusta on April 10-13.

Knocked out by eventual runner-up Stewart Cink in the third round of the Accenture world match play championship in Arizona last week, Montgomerie moves up from 62nd to 54th.

The eight-time European number one needs to be in the top 50 the week before the first major of the year.

He is playing in the Johnnie Walker Classic in India this week, then the Ballantine’s Championship in South Korea and the CA World Championship in Florida before the cut-off date at the end of this month.

Latest leading positions:

1 Tiger Woods 21.24pts, 2 Phil Mickelson 10.12, 3 Steve Stricker 6.59, 4 Ernie Els 6.16, 5 Adam Scott 6.03, 6 KJ Choi 5.91, 7 Justin Rose 5.73, 8 Jim Furyk 5.64, 9 Rory Sabbatini 5.59, 10 Padraig Harrington 5.22, 11 Vijay Singh 5.14, 12 Henrik Stenson 5.09, 13 Sergio Garcia 4.42, 14 Angel Cabrera 4.29, 15 Stewart Cink 4.10, 16 Luke Donald 3.94, 17 Geoff Ogilvy 3.89, 18 Aaron Baddeley 3.79, 19 Zach Johnson 3.70, 20 Lee Westwood 3.59

Other leading Europeans:

22 Martin Kaymer, 23 Niclas Fasth, 24 Ian Poulter, 26 Paul Casey, 42 Miguel Angel Jimenez, 44 Soren Hansen, 45 Robert Karlsson, 51 Nick Dougherty, 54 Colin Montgomerie, 56 Anders Hansen, 61 Bradley Dredge, 63 Peter Hanson, 66 Daniel Chopra, 71 Soren Kjeldsen, 72 Simon Dyson, 74 Carl Pettersson, 76 Steve Webster, 79 Mikko Ilonen, 87 Graeme McDowell, 92 Ross Fisher, 93 Bernhard Langer, 94 Ross McGowan, 95 Raphael Jacquelin, 98 Fredrik Jacobson.