CLARKE DROPS OUT
OF WORLD
RANKINGS' TOP 50
IN TEN-YEAR LOW

Darren Clarke, pictured left, perhaps not surprisingly, has dropped out of the top 50 world men's professional rankings for the first time since the 1990s.
The Ulsterman, now 38, finished 20th in the Dubai Desert Classic. That dropped him from 47th to 51st in the global ratings.
No comparatively young man could lose his wife to cancer and stay focused on his profession even though he did summon up a great performance in the Ryder Cup on his home turf.
In the golfing world of "Going Up/Going Down," the Dubai victor, Sweden's Henrik Stenson has forced himself into the top 10 for the first time in his career at the age of 30. Another Ryder Cup hero, Henrik was 14th before Dubai and is now No 10 in the world.
And yet it's not so long ago - 2002 to be precise, that Stenson could hardly hit his hat and plummeted to 176th in the European Order of Merit.
But, after also playing a key part in Europe's Ryder Cup success, the 30-year-old has now jumped up from 14th to 10th in the world.
England's Luke Donald is still the top European in the world rankings at eighth spot, just ahead of Irishman Padraig Harrington.

The world's top 20 are:

1 Tiger Woods (US).

2 Jim Furyk (US).

3 Adam Scott (Aus).

4 Ernie Els (SAf).

5 Retief Goosen (SAf).

6 Phil Mickelson (US).

7 Vijay Singh (Fiji).

8 Luke Donald (Eng).
9 Padraig Harrington (Ire).

10 Henrik Stenson (Swe).

11 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus).

12 Sergio Garcia (Spa).

13 Trevor Immelman (SAf).

14 Paul Casey (Eng).

15 David Howell (Eng).

16 Nick O'Hern (Aus).

17 Davis Love (US).

18 David Toms (US).

19 Colin Mongomerie (Sco).

20 Chris DiMarco (US).

Other Scottish rankings in the top 500 include:

132 Gary Orr.

133 Marc Warren.

192 Paul Lawrie.

250 David Drysdale.

275 Stephen Gallagher.

334 Andrew Coltart.

349 Alastair Forsyth.

351 Simon Yates.

451 Barry Hume.

487 Steven O'Hara.

492 Alan McLean.

ANY COMMENTS? E-mail them to colin@scottishgolfview