Casey climbs to sixth

Paul Casey goes into The Masters this week at a career-high sixth in the world after his play-off victory at the Houston Open.

Casey, who beat American JB Holmes at the first extra hole for his first US Tour success, moves up six places.

He began the year 41st and without a win for almost two years, but so far in 2009 has lifted titles in Abu Dhabi and the United States and reached the final of the WGC-Accenture Match Play in Arizona.

Tiger Woods retains the number one spot for a 200th successive week, making it a total of 542 weeks in his career.

The North’s Michael Hoey is now 148th after his first European Tour title in Portugal. That is a leap of 125 places for the former British amateur champion.

Latest leading positions:

1 Tiger Woods 9.83pts, 2 Phil Mickelson 8.37, 3 Sergio Garcia 7.28, 4 Geoff Ogilvy 6.43, 5 Padraig Harrington 5.86, 6 Paul Casey 5.55, 7 Vijay Singh 5.52, 8 Henrik Stenson 5.12, 9 Robert Karlsson 4.94, 10 Camilo Villegas 4.84, 11 Kenny Perry 4.79, 12 Steve Stricker 4.29, 13 Lee Westwood 4.23, 14 Anthony Kim 4.20, 15 Jim Furyk 4.13, 16 Ernie Els 4.09, 17 Rory McIlroy 3.96, 18 Stewart Cink 3.63, 19 Mike Weir 3.59, 20 Martin Kaymer 3.40

Other leading Europeans:

25 Justin Rose, 27 Alvaro Quiros, 30 Miguel Angel Jimenez, 33 Ross Fisher, 34 Luke Donald, 38 Ian Poulter, 39 Oliver Wilson, 41 Soren Kjeldsen, 45 Graeme McDowell, 57 Peter Hanson, 58 Anders Hansen, 61 Soren Hansen, 67 Francesco Molinari, 72 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, 78 Carl Pettersson, 81 Darren Clarke, 84 Anthony Wall, 86 Alexander Noren, 92 Gareth Maybin.