Tiger Woods ended the year at No.1 in the world golf ranking for the fourth consecutive season, while John Dal improved 456 spots to No.51 one place short of earning an invitation to the Masters. Woods, who won six PGA tournaments this year, including the Masters and the PGA grand slam of golf, had a substantial lead over Phil Mickelson, and likely will remain No.1 through at least the first half of next year.
Woods finished the season with 15.67 points, while Mickelson collected 9.16 points. The ranking is computed on a two-year rolling basis. Players earn points based on finish and strength of field. Colin Montgomerie of Scotland, Lee Westwood of England and Americans Hal Sutton and Tom Lehman all fell out of the top 10 this year, replaced by Spain's Sergio Garcia, PGA champion David Toms, US Open champion Retief Goosen of South Africa and Darren Clarke of northern Ireland.
Daly was as high as no.47 two weeks ago, but slipped four spots. The top 50 in the world ranking on Monday were invited to the Masters. Daly can still get to Augusta if he is ranked in the top 50 on March 11.
Those added to the Masters field on Monday were Montgomerie, Westwood, Padraig Harrington of Ireland, Thomas Bjorn of Denmark, New Zealand's Michael Campbell, Nick Price of Zimbabwe, Australian Stuart Appleby, Toru Taniguchi of Japan, Irishman Paul Mcginley and Americans Charles Howell and Adam Scott. Bureau Report