McIlroy World No 35 as Harrington closes on Woods

Rory McIlroy jumped to 35th as Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia closed the gap on Tiger Woods in the latest world rankings.

Last week Woods was 3.48 pts ahead of Garcia and 4.64 ahead of No 3 Harrington but his lead over the Spaniard is now just 3.14 points with the Dubliner only 4.26 points adrift.

Tied for fifth with Harrington in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, McIlroy leapfrogged Graeme McDowell when he moved up five spots to 35th and can make the world’s top 20 if he wins this week’s Qatar Masters.

Darren Clarke and Michael Hoey also moved up after finishing in a four way tie for second in the Africa Open on the Sunshine Tour.

Clarke climbed just two places to 71st but Hoey who made one of the biggest moves of the week when he leapt 69 places to 296th.

Latest World Rankings:

1 Tiger Woods 11.06pts; 2 Sergio Garcia 7.91; 3 Pádraig Harrington 6.79; 4 Phil Mickelson 6.69; 5 Vijay Singh 6.42; 6 Geoff Ogilvy 5.15; 7 Robert Karlsson 4.97; 8 Anthony Kim 4.76; 9 Camilo Villegas 4.68; 10 Lee Westwood 4.51.

Other Irish: 35 Rory McIlroy; 36 Graeme McDowell; 71 Darren Clarke; 92 Gareth Maybin; 112 Paul McGinley; 169 Peter Lawrie; 173 Damien McGrane; 296 Michael Hoey; 382 Gary Murphy ; 459 Michael McGeady.