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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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.

Englishman Simon Khan was ahead and looked likely to pip McDowell to the prize until he slipped up on the 12th, a double bogey that eventually lost him the title.

Despite not being fancied by the golf championship odds, Graeme McDowell played well all weekend and deserved the victory.  He finished the final round on a 3-under 68 and won the Barclays Scottish Open 2008 with a total of 13-under 271 at Loch Lomond.

James Kingston (66) came second. Richard Green and Miguel-Angel Jimenez tied for third.

Simon Khan had a 72 to finish fifth, but was happy to secure a in the the British Open that starts on Thursday at Royal Birkdale.