Robert Karlsson’s victory in the Commercialbank Qatar Masters presented by Dolphin Energy lifted the Swede back into the World’s top 20 in 17th place after he had slipped down the Official World Golf Ranking last year while out of the game through injury.
Karlsson, who reached a career high on sixth on his way to becoming European Number One in 2008, missed much of last season with an eye injury but his three shot victory in Doha saw him jump 14 places from 31st.
Alavro Quiros, who finished a gallant runner-up to Karlsson as defending champion, also made a significant step up the World Rankings from 52nd to 32nd, effectively guaranteeing a return to the Masters Tournament in April as the top 50 in the world earn invitations.
Lee Westwood narrowly missed out on a move to a career high of World Number Three but did close the gap on Steve Stricker with his joint third place finish in Qatar. There was some shuffling of places around the top ten though with Paul Casey moving up two places to seventh ahead of Padraig Harrington and Rory McIlroy moving back into the top ten in ninth place ahead of his defence of the Dubai Desert Classic title this week. Henrik Stenson now occupies tenth place as he returns to one of his favourite hunting grounds at the Emirates Golf Club in Dubai.
England's Ross McGowan and Spaniard Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, meanwhile, are in position to profit from the expected absence of top two Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson from the World Golf Championship - Accenture World Match Play Championship in Tucson in two weeks' time.
Mickelson has already confirmed he is taking the week off, while there is no indication that Woods will end his indefinite break from golf.
The tournament is for the game's leading 64 available players and with one week to go in qualifying McGowan is 65th and Fernandez-Castano 66th.
