Francesco Molinari moved into the world’s top 15 for the first time after his victory in the WGC – HSBC Champions at Sheshan International Golf Club.
The Italian’s impressive wire-to-wire victory, where he withstood the relentless pressure from the new World Number One Lee Westwood, secured his first title since the 2006 Italian Open and lifted him to World Number 14 on his 28th birthday, a climb of 16 places.
He is now three places above his elder brother with both siblings in the World Top 20.
“At the beginning of the season, after I had a good season last year, the goal was to get in the top 20 for the end of the year. It was a tough goal, but I have done it now.
“And I'm just really happy as I put a lot of work in the last few years to improve my game with Denis Pugh, and with our Italian coach, Sergio, who was here this week and helped me out. So I need to thank him, as well. I also just started working with Mark Roe recently on the short game, and I think you can already see the improvements in that.
“So I'm just really looking forward to what's coming, because I showed today and all this week how I can play golf.”
Westwood strengthened his position as World Number One after finished runner-up and is now 0.63 average points ahead of Tiger Woods in second spot.
While Luke Donald remained eighth in the World Ranking, the player he shared third place with, Richie Ramsay, shot up 71 places to 140th.
For the latest Official World Golf Ranking, clickhere
