In one of the most remarkable outcomes in Major Championship history, American Ben Curtis won the 132nd Open Golf Championship at Royal St.Georges in Sandwich, Kent. Ben is the lowest ranked player ever to win a Major Championship and his 361-position improvement to No.35 in the world is the single-biggest leap into the World Top-50 since the Official World Golf Ranking started in March 1986.
Ben had 1268 players ahead of him at the turn of the year when he possessed no World Ranking points and within 7 months he is now the World No.35 and the twentieth-highest ranked golfer from the United States of America.
At No.396, Ben is comfortably the lowest-ranked golfer to win a Major Championship since 1986. To put the win into perspective, John Daly was No.168 in the world when he won the PGA Championship in 1991 and Paul Lawrie was No.159 in the world when he won the Open Championship at Carnoustie in 1999.
Runners-up Vijay Singh and Thomas Bjorn both made significant jumps on the World Ranking this week. Vijay moves up 3 spots and replaces Masters Champion Mike Weir at World No.3 while Thomas improves 29 spots to World No.20. Sweden's Fredrik Jacobson finished T6 and he improves to a new career World Ranking high of No.33 while 6-time Major winner Nick Faldo returns to the World Top-50 at No.46.
2001 Open Champion David Duval falls out of the World Top-100 this week for the first time since March 5th 1995.
