Yang leaps up rankings

Korean Yang Yong-eun’s amazing victory over Tiger Woods in the US PGA Championship – the first win by an Asian-born player in any of the men’s majors - has taken him from 110th in the world to 34th.

And that earns the 37-year-old a place in Greg Norman’s International side to take on the Americans in the Presidents Cup in San Francisco in October.

The top 10 non-Europeans in the world rankings qualified and Yang’s leap into ninth spot pushed South African Rory Sabbatini out of an automatic place.

Norman and opposite number Fred Couples have two wild cards to hand out on September 8, although Couples looks sure to go for US Open champion Lucas Glover and the in-form Hunter Mahan, who was unbeaten on his Ryder Cup debut last year.

Among those who need a pick from Norman are Yang’s compatriot KJ Choi, last year’s Masters champion Trevor Immelman, who pulled out of last week’s event with a recurrence of his wrist injury, and Australian Adam Scott, who has fallen from third in the world to 50th.

World rankings latest leading positions:

1 Tiger Woods 14.24pts,

2 Phil Mickelson 7.96,

3 Paul Casey 6.58,

4 Kenny Perry 6.11,

5 Henrik Stenson 5.93,

6 Steve Stricker 5.85,

7 Sergio Garcia 5.68,

8 Geoff Ogilvy 5.49,

9 Lee Westwood 5.24,

10 Stewart Cink 5.10.

11 Padraig Harrington 4.95,

12 Martin Kaymer 4.90,

13 Vijay Singh 4.80,

14 Jim Furyk 4.75,

15 Lucas Glover 4.48,

16 Camilo Villegas 4.42,

17 Robert Karlsson 4.25,

18 Anthony Kim 4.21,

19 Retief Goosen 4.13,

20 Sean O’Hair 4.08.

Other leading Europeans:

21 Ian Poulter,

22 Rory McIlroy,

25 Ross Fisher,

27 Luke Donald,

32 Soren Kjeldsen,

38 Miguel Angel Jimenez,

39 Alvaro Quiros,

42 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano,

44 Oliver Wilson,

45 Graeme McDowell,

49 Soren Hansen,

55 Justin Rose,

58 Chris Wood,

61 Francesco Molinari,

62 Peter Hanson,

65 Anders Hansen,

72 Nick Dougherty,

85 Thomas Levet,

91 Anthony Wall,

93 Steve Webster,

98 Johan Edfors.

Presidents Cup qualifiers (two wild cards to be added to both teams on September 8):

United States: 1 Tiger Woods, 2 Phil Mickelson, 3 Steve Stricker, 4 Kenny Perry, 5 Zach Johnson, 6 Stewart Cink, 7 Sean O’Hair, 8 Jim Furyk, 9 Anthony Kim, 10 Justin Leonard.

International: 1 Geoff Ogilvy, 2 Vijay Singh, 3 Camilo Villegas, 4 Retief Goosen, 5 Ernie Els, 6 Angel Cabrera, 7 Mike Weir, 8 Robert Allenby, 9 YE Yang, 10 Tim Clark.