Three British golfers head up the official world rankings as Germany’s former no.1, Martin Kaymer drops to fourth after failing to finish in the top eight in the BMW International Open in Munich yesterday.

Following his U.S Open victory Rory McIlroy moves up to a career best third place behind Luke Donald (first) and Lee Westwood.

This is great news ahead of the 140th British Open Championship which this year is being held at the Royal St. George’s Golf Course in Sandwich in Kent, the Garden of England on the south-east coast, in two weeks time.

Rory McIlroy will go into the British Open as one of the favourites, and it will be good to see how he copes with the pressure post that fantastic display of golf at The U.S Open when he led from round 1 and never once showed a loss of concentrate or bottle as he had on the final round of the U.S Masters in April at Augusta.

The U.S Open was Rory McIlroy’s first major win after several near misses and five years of dealing with the heavy burden of expectancy and praise from many of his contemporaries and commentators alike.  Unfortunately, I think if anything the pressure is going to be greater as everyone looks to see if Rory McIlroy can begin to pull away from the rest of the field and dominate the next few years of golf in the same way as Tiger Woods had before him.

If anymore incentive was required, it has been announced that the winner’s cheque for the British Open is now £900,000 as prize-fund money increases to £5m.

Some high profile PGA players will be missing the AT&T National in the U.S to play The Scottish Open at Castle Stuart Golf Links in Inverness as a warming up for the Open Championship.  Those PGA players making the trip across the pond include Phil Mickelson, Matt Kuchar and Brandt Snedeker, who join English golfers Luke Donald, Graeme McDowell and Justin Rose.

The Barclays Scottish Open starts on Thursday 7th July with Round 1 of The Open commencing on Thursday on 14th July.

I am really looking forward to this year’s British Open and hope the heat wave continues so the top golfers in the world can do battle with each other, rather than the conditions.

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Luke Donald World Ranked #1

English golfer Luke Donald tops the world ranking after winning the BMW PGA Championship last weekend at Wentworth.

The thirty-three year old from Hemel Hempstead plays most of his golf these days in the United States but is also a member of the European Tour.  He turned professional in 2001 and first entered the world ranking Top 20 in 2005 and Top 10 in 2006.

He first played in the European Ryder Cup team in 2004 and in the same year won the WGC-World Cup for England with his partner Paul Casey.

Last month he became the second English golfer to be ranked number one player in the world by replacing Lee Westwood. His victory at Wentworth followed his biggest win to date in February 2011 when he beat Martin Kaymer to win the WGC-Accenture Matchplay Championship 3&2 in the final.

Watching golf over the past few years I saw Luke Donald as a very reliable, safe and consistent player but am surprised he has become ranked world number one.

Furthermore, previous to his much publicised meltdown, no one would have thought that in 2011 the name of Tiger Woods would not be at the top of the list, let alone falling out of the Top 10!

Official World Golf Ranking Top 20

1  Luke Donald,  England
2  Lee Westwood,  England
3  Martin Kaymer,  Germany
4  Phil Mickelson,  USA
5  Graeme McDowell,  N. Ireland
6  Rory McIlroy,  N. Ireland
7  Matt Kuchar,  USA
8   Steve Stricker,  USA
9   Paul Casey,  England
10 Charl Schwartzel,  South Africa
11 Bubba Watson,  USA
12 Ian Poulter,  England
13 Tiger Woods,  USA
14 Dustin Johnson,  USA
15 Nick Watney,  USA
16 K.J. Choi,  South Korea
17 Jim Furyk,  USA
18 Hunter Mahan,  USA
19 Jason Day,  Australia
20 Francesco Molinari,  Italy

For more information visit the Official World Golf Ranking website.

Poulter came from behind in several matches and put his victory down to finding form with his putting.  His victory tasted sweeter as it came on his son Luke’s seventh birthday.

After lifting the trophy, Poulter told reporters:

“I thought it would be pretty special to win this today. I finally started holing some putts. I’ve been frustrated for a few months and you have to hole putts to win.”

Luke Donald, who beat German Martin Kaymer in the semi-final, could have replaced Lee Westwood as World Ranked #1 if he had beaten Poulter.

A disappointed Luke Donald told reporters afterwards.

“I ran out of steam a bit and didn’t take the opportunities I had.”

Ian Poulter pocketed a cheque for €800,000; while Luke Donald received €420,000.  Not bad for a few days golf in the sun!

Ian Poulter, Luke Donald, Martin Kaymer, Lee Westwood and other members of the successful 2010 European Ryder Cup team go head-to-head later this week at Wentworth in the BMW Championship.

Martin Kaymer

Germany’s Martin Kaymer claimed the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and in the process has leap-frogged Tiger Woods in the world rankings. World No. 2, Martin Kaymer,won the Middle East tournament for a record third time in four years.

Kaymer, the current USPGA champion and winner of last season’s European Tour Race to Dubai, now has a week of practice before the Qatar Masters on February 3, 2011, after which he will join a star-studded field, including Tiger Woods and World No. 1 Lee Westwood, at the Dubai Desert Classic on February 7, 2011.

The reputation of Yas Links Abu Dhabi has been further reinforced after it played host to new World No. 2, Martin Kaymer, the day after he won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship for a record third time in four years.

The 26-year-old German spent the day at the Middle East’s ‘best golf course’ – the region’s only links course and designed by renowned American architect, Kyle Phillips – to play centre-stage in a new Hugo Boss clothing photo shoot.

For Chris White, General Manager of Aldar Golf, developers of Yas Links, hosting the new World No. 2 is testament to the pedigree of the course.

He said: “Since the opening of Yas Links, we have hosted some of the world’s top players, including World No. 1 Lee Westwood, reigning US Open Champion, Graeme McDowell, two-time World Golf Championship winner, Darren Clarke, and of course the new World No. 2 Martin Kaymer, to name a few.

“The interest and attraction of Yas Links and what it has to offer is forever growing, with more and more people – from golf fans, avid players and professionals to international athletes and celebrities – wanting to visit the Middle East’s first links course.”

Westwood is unlikely to play for a month because of injury and this move was set to see him move ahead of Tiger Woods at the top of the rankings. However, Kaymer has won his last three events and could threaten the Englishman’s position.

After winning the Dunhill Links Championship, Martin Kaymer sits in fourth position currently. He is set to compete in the Andalucia Valderrama Masters in Spain though and success in this tournament could see him overtake both Tiger Woods and Lee Westwood.

This would be a more conventional way of going to the top of the rankings, winning tournaments rather than sitting out through injury, but that is the way the ranking system works.

It is calculated over a two-year period and because neither Tiger Woods nor Lee Westwood plan to play before 4th November, Westwood – who has had a better time of it than the American in recent months – would overtake him on the 31st October.

Nobody took into account the form of Martin Kaymer though. He has been in inspirational form and even if he doesn’t quite get to the top of the rankings this time, there can be no doubt that he is playing some of the best golf of the year right now.

European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie has been having his say on the situation, backing Westwood to be No.1 by the end of the month, despite Kaymer’s surge.

Montgomerie said: “”I think Lee will be number one even if he doesn’t play. If Tiger does not change his schedule he will lose his number one spot, it is just the way the world rankings work.”

The main point Montgomerie was keen to stress though was how healthy this is for European golf. Two players battling it out at the top of the World rankings can only be a good thing.
“We have had a fantastic year in Europe, said Monty.  “There is a dominance and there is a changing of the guard over to Europe.”

This is certainly the case, with the Ryder Cup victory coinciding with major wins for Kaymer and Graeme McDowell as well as six Europeans in the top ten of the World rankings.

Who will be top come 31st October though?

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Watney who had led the first days play, struggled a little on the second day hitting a two under 70 to keep a share of the lead with Woods, both now 10 under overall.

The chasing pack sit just one shot behind the leaders and include world number two Phil Mickelson, Ryan Moore and Alvaro Quiros, with Anthony Kim occupying third place on 8 under overall.

German Race to Dubai contender Martin Kaymer fell away with a two-over 74 to drop six shots back, while European money list leader Lee Westwood is tied for 23rd place at three under after two solid but unspectacular rounds.

Englishmen Ross Fisher and Paul Casey join Martin Kaymer on four under and six shots off the lead.

Although Watney could not match his first round score, both he and Woods produced four birdies on the back nine. Woods was frustrated earlier in the day with his putting, but ended in fine form, he said after day two;

“I got off to a good start and birdied the very first hole, but after that, I didn’t really make any putts. I certainly had some looks at them and didn’t really capitalise on anything and made a putt at nine and from then on I hit a lot of good putts and played the last 10 holes in five under.

It was a little bit frustrating not holing the putts, but the guys weren’t really running off and hiding and I knew that if I could play the back nine in three under that would be a pretty good number and I was able to do a couple better than that.”

lee westwood leads the european money list

The top four players on the European money list have managed to avoid each other in the draw for the Volvo World Matchplay Championship in Spain. The group stages will be played at Finca Cortesin close to Marbella and will take place on the 18th green, with the semi finals on Saturday and the final on Sunday.

To fit all three group games into two days the players in the first two groups play twice on Thursday and those in the last two groups do the same on Friday.

Europe’s top money earners Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Rory McIlroy and  Paul Casey have been kept apart for the tournaments new round robin stage.

Current Race to Dubai leader Lee Westwood is seeded second and will be up against Camilo Villegas, Ross Fisher and India’s Jeev Milkha Singh.

Kaymer is up against Sergio Garcia, Robert Allenby and Oliver Wilson, McIlroy’s group is headed by Swede Henrik Stenson and includes Angel Cabrera and Simon Dyson.

The fourth quartet is made up of Paul Casey, returning from a torn rib muscle that has kept him sidelined since the start of August, Retief Goosen, Anthony Kim and Scott Strange.

Casey, Northern Ireland’s McIlroy and Germany’s Kaymer all have the chance to take the European number one spot from Westwood should they make the semi-finals.

The 24 year old picked up the £500,000 cheque at Loch Lomond on Sunday little more than a week after pocketing a similar amount in the French Open, following his play off success against Lee Westwood in France.

The German was European Rookie of the year in 2007 and is now second to Englishman Paul Casey on the European Tours money list. Kaymer, who goes into this week’s British Open looking for a third win on the trot says;

“We are playing a major next week. And the field is going to be the best we have all year long. After last week and this week, I feel really good, my game is solid, so hopefully, I can keep it up.”

Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin finished the Scottish Open in joint second with Spain’s Gonzalo Fernandez-Castono, two shots off the lead.