Hunter Mahan's upset victory over Rory McIlroy at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship has hoisted him 23 places into the World's Top 10 at No 9.
Hunter Mahan hitting his final drive on Sunday
It also earned him $1.4m in prize money and prevented the World No 2 from Northern Ireland from replacing Englishman Luke Donald as the World No 1.
Donald crashed out of the Match Play Championship when he was beaten by Ernie Els in last week's first round and that gave both McIlroy and Westwood, the World No 3, a good chance of moving into Donald's top spot on the World Rankings list if either of the two won at the Ritz Carlton Golf Club at Arizona's Dove Mountain on Sunday.
Neither did.
Westwood went out in Sunday morning's semi-final where he was beaten 3-1 by McIlroy and the 22-year-old Ulsterman in turn lost a golden opportunity when he was upset 2&1 by Mahan in the Sunday afternoon final.
Both McIlroy and Westwood, who also lost the play-off for third place to American Mark Wilson on Sunday, have moved a lot closer to the currently out-of-form Donald, however.
With both of them now lying just O,533 and O.961 points respectively behind Donald on the rankings list, they remain well geared to overtake him in some of important pre-Masters events coming up in March,. among them this week's Honda Open, next week's WGC - Cadillac Championship at Doral and the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill later in the month.
That's of course if Donald doesn't do something about it and hit back himself with some strong finishers.
In the meantime the rock-solid Wilson, who has won three times in the last 13 months on the US PGA Tour and made a fight of each and every one of his six knock-out matches in Arizona, has also made good ground on the rankings list, soaring from 42nd to 24th place, just three rungs behind Tiger Woods who is now sitting in 21st place after his second-round exit at Dove Mountain.
The other noticeable move at the top of the World Rankings table was made this week by Dustin Johnson, who exchanged his 10th place for Justin Day's 7th spot ahead of Mahan (8th) and Phil Mickelson (9th).
Mickelson, winner of last week Northern Trust Open, and injured Paul Casey, did not to play at Dove Mountain.
Latest leading positions in the world golf rankings:
1 Luke Donald 9.13pts, 2 Rory McIlroy 8.60, 3 Lee Westwood 8.17, 4 Martin Kaymer 6.02, 5 Steve Stricker 5.80, 6 Webb Simpson 5.14, 7 Dustin Johnson 5.11, 8 Adam Scott 5.05, 9 Hunter Mahan 5.03, 10 Jason Day 5.01,11 Phil Mickelson 4.96, 12 Charl Schwartzel 4.87, 13 Bill Haas 4.67, 14 Matt Kuchar 4.56, 15 Graeme McDowell 4.36, 16 Nick Watney 4.35, 17 Sergio Garcia 4.14, 18 Brandt Snedeker 4.12, 19 KJ Choi 4.08, 20 Keegan Bradley 4.00
Other leading Europeans:
23 Justin Rose, 25 Paul Casey, 26 Peter Hanson, 27 Ian Poulter, 29 Thomas Bjorn, 31 Simon Dyson, 32 Alvaro Quiros, 34 Robert Karlsson, 35 Martin Laird, 37 Anders Hansen, 41 Fredrik Jacobson, 44 Paul Lawrie, 45 Francesco Molinari, 50 Miguel Angel Jimenez, 51 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, 56 Darren Clarke, 57 Robert Rock, 61 Rafael Cabrera Bello, 63 Matteo Manassero, 68 Nicolas Colsaerts, 70 Joost Luiten, 75 Alexander Noren, 83 Pablo Larrazabal, 85 Edoardo Molinari, 87 Padraig Harrington, 88 Carl Pettersson, 90 Gregory Havret, 91 David Lynn, 94 Michael Hoey, 95 Jamie Donaldson, 100 Stephen Gallacher
Golf365.com