While Vijay Singh capped a truly outstanding season by finishing the year as the World Number One, a review of the Official World Golf Ranking in 2004 also underlines the record performances of European Tour Members who comprised 12 of the top 20 players who made the greatest gains during the year.
Singh, The European Tour Golfer of the Year, led the way with a net “gain” in points of 210.91 after picking up 707.57 points to advance from second to first. Ernie Els, like Singh an Honorary Member of The European Tour, was the second highest points earner with 574.68 and fifth in terms of net gains as he retained his position at the start of the year of third in the world.
The superb achievements of Spain’’s Miguel Angel Jiménez, who won five times during the calendar year, are further highlighted by the fact that he made the third highest upward movement in terms of points, gaining 144.29 as he climbed from 94th to 12th in the World.
Further significant gains were made by Luke Donald, Stephen Gallacher, Sergio Garcia, Richard Green, Joakim Haeggmann, David Howell, Thomas Levet, Graeme McDowell and Lee Westwood.
Donald, a winner of two titles on The European Tour International Schedule, was one of ten players in world golf to have made a net gain of more than 100 points, his 105.24 points helping him advance 104 places to 26th in the Official World Golf Ranking. Garcia, also gained in excess of 100 points.
Northern Ireland’’s McDowell was another player who made a big jump as he advanced 179 positions to World Number 55 after a net gain of 97.23 points. Haeggman also enjoyed a stellar year as he made a net gain of 73.18 points in making an astonishing climb of 280 places to World Number 47. Huge strides were also made by Frenchman Thomas Levet in making a gain of 82.60 points to climb 82 places to 42nd.
