McIlroy returns to top 10 after Quail Hollow win

Rory McIlroy is back in the world’s top 10 and Phil Mickelson can topple Tiger Woods at the top of the rankings this week.

McIlroy’s astonishing first US Tour victory, achieved with a closing 62 just before his 21st birthday at the Quail Hollow Championship, returns him to the number-nine spot.

But by finishing runner-up to McIlroy, Masters champion Mickelson goes into the Players Championship on Thursday knowing that if he wins and Woods is outside the top five he will be number one for the first time in his career.

Woods, of course, missed the cut by eight in North Carolina after an horrific second-round 79 in his second event back following a sex scandal.

In an incredible weekend’s golf 18-year-old Ryo Ishikawa scored a 58 – the lowest round on any major tour in history – for his seventh victory on the Japanese circuit.

He is now 38th in the rankings, while Spanish Open champion Alvaro Quiros improves to 31st.

Latest leading positions in the world golf rankings:

1 Tiger Woods 11.17pts,

2 Phil Mickelson 9.66,

3 Steve Stricker 7.75,

4 Lee Westwood 7.44,

5 Jim Furyk 7.06,

6 Ian Poulter 6.18,

7 Ernie Els 5.92,

8 Paul Casey 5.87,

9 Rory McIlroy 5.53,

10 Martin Kaymer 5.11

11 Anthony Kim 5.10,

12 Padraig Harrington 4.57,

13 Camilo Villegas 4.49,

14 Geoff Ogilvy 4.25,

15 Retief Goosen 4.14,

16 Robert Allenby 4.09,

17 Hunter Mahan 4.01,

18 Henrik Stenson 4.00,

19 Luke Donald 3.99,

20 YE Yang 3.88

Other leading Europeans:

25 Sergio Garcia,

30 Robert Karlsson,

31 Alvaro Quiros,

32 Ross Fisher,

36 Edoardo Molinari,

37 Miguel Angel Jimenez,

41 Francesco Molinari,

48 Oliver Wilson,

49 Soren Hansen,

50 Graeme McDowell,

55 Anders Hansen,

56 Soren Kjeldsen,

63 Justin Rose,

64 Peter Hanson,

66 Simon Dyson,

69 Ross McGowan,

71 Rhys Davies,

78 Alexander Noren,

86 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano,

91 Shane Lowry,

93 Chris Wood,

95 Gregory Bourdy