Ames stays in golf‘s world Top-20

LONDON: Fiji’s Vijay Singh has taken over from Tiger Woods as the world’s number one golfer, while Trinidad and Tobago’s Stephen Ames keeps his number 19 world ranking. In the ratings released on Monday, the 41-year-old Singh displaced Woods from the top spot after the American had held the top spot for a colossal five years and four weeks.

Ames, whose remarkable consistency this season has led to a rise in over 80 places up the world rankings, stays in the top 20 in spite of his absence from the circuit for the past two weeks. In 22 tournament appearances this season, he has had 10 top-10 finishes and 15 results in the top-25 including a maiden US PGA Tour win at the Western Open in early July, when he collected a huge prize of US$864,000. Ames is currently eighth in the money earnings’ list with US $2.96 million, while Singh leads the pack at US$7.88 million, followed by Phil Mickelson (US $5.66m) and Woods (US$4.56m).

World Rankings: 1 Vijay Singh; 2 Tiger Woods; 3 Ernie Els; 4 Phil Mickelson; 5 Davis Love III; 6 Retief Goosen; 7 Mike Weir; 8 Padraig Harrington; 9 Adam Scott; 10 Jim Furyk; 11 Sergio Garcia; 12 Stewart Cink; 13 Stuart Appleby; 14 Kenny Perry; 15 Chad Campbell; 16 Darren Clarke; 17 Chris DiMarco; 18 Todd Hamilton; 19 Stephen Ames; 20 Scott Verplank.