Martin Kaymer climbed to a career-best No.
4 in the world golf rankings after capturing his third
straight victory.
The 25-year-old German moved up two places to his current
position after
winning the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on Sunday at
St. Andrews. His
streak of titles extends back to the
PGA
Championship in August.
"Actually, I won four in a row with the Ryder Cup," Kaymer, a
member of the
victorious European team, pointed out.
One of his Ryder Cup teammates, Lee Westwood, failed to overtake
Tiger Woods
for the No. 1 ranking after tying for 11th place on Sunday,
although he is
still projected to hold the position by the end of the
month.
Westwood needed to finish no worse than a three-way tie for
second to become
the first player in nearly 5 1/2 years to knock Woods from
his perch atop the
rankings.
Woods, who has held the No. 1 ranking for 279 consecutive weeks,
is expected
to lose it at the end of October even if Westwood sits out
the rest of the
month.
Westwood was No. 2 for the second week in a row and was trailed
by Phil
Mickelson, Kaymer and Steve Stricker to round out the top
five. Stricker
dropped one spot because of Kaymer's move.
So did Jim Furyk, who was down to No. 6, although little else
changed in the
top 20. Furyk was followed by Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Rory
McIlroy and Ernie
Els, who rounded out the top 10 in the same positions.
Matt Kuchar, Dustin Johnson, Graeme McDowell, Edoardo Molinari,
Ian Poulter,
Hunter Mahan and Retief Goosen remained in positions 11-17,
while Zach Johnson
was up two spots to 18th.
Louis Oosthuizen was 19th again and Anthony Kim dropped two places to 20th.
Heath Slocum climbed 11 spots to No. 52 in the rankings
following his win at
the PGA Tour's McGladrey Classic. Bill Haas finished second
and moved up eight
places to 56th.
