Edoardo Molinari can continue his meteoric rise up the Official World Golf Ranking in this week’s BMW Italian Open with valuable Ranking points available, while The Players Championship in the United States could see further movement among the World’s Top Ten.
The elder of the Molinari brothers enjoyed a remarkable 2009 season, climbing from outside the top 650 at the start of the campaign to World Number 36 – a superb achievement for a player competing on the European Challenge Tour.
He set a new Challenge Tour earnings record of €242,979 – with victory on home soil in the Piemonte Open among his successes – and the Italian can earn more World Ranking Points in his home town of Turin this week.
Molinari will also be looking over his shoulder with Spaniard Miguel Angel Jiménez, who at World Number 37 is just one place below him, and will be hoping to leapfrog the 29 year old in the Rankings.
Meanwhile across the Atlantic, Phil Mickelson has the opportunity to become only the 13th World Number One in the 24 year history of the Official World Golf Ranking.
The Masters Tournament Champion could end Tiger Woods’ current 258 week reign as World Number One if he wins the US PGA Tour’s Players Championship at Sawgrass and Woods fails to finish in the top five.
In-form Rory McIlroy will be hoping to make further inroads into the Top Ten following his stunning performance at Quail Hollow where the Northern Irishman closed with a course record 62 to win by four shots from Mickelson. It was a victory which moved McIlroy to World Number Nine.
McIlroy’s stablemate and World Number Four Lee Westwood, runner up in the Masters Tournament, could also reach a new career high of World Number Number Three this week with the current occupant of the slot, Steve Stricker, missing The Players Championship due to injury.
European Tour Members Paul Casey, Ernie Els, Martin Kaymer and Ian Poulter will also all be looking to cement their place in the World’s Top Ten and improve on their Rankings, while Henrik Stenson – the current World Number 18 – will be eyeing some valuable Ranking points as well as a successful defence of the title he won 12 months ago.
To see the World Ranking points available in Italy this week click
here.
