With the numbers all but crunched for the year, it seems certain Padraig Harrington will finish 2006 as the eighth-ranked player in the official world rankings.
A combination of his finishing position in his final tournament of the year, the Target World Challenge, and Ernie Els's victory in the South African Open on Sunday meant the Dubliner slipped down a place in the latest rankings, where Tiger Woods is the runaway top-ranked player.
Although Harrington has slipped down a place this week to eighth, his season's work, the individual highlight of which was winning the European Tour order of merit, was such that he rose from 17th at the start of the year to a return to the top 10.
In contrast, all of the other top-flight Irish professionals have suffered quite dramatic falls in the rankings.
Darren Clarke has fallen from 18th to 35th place, Paul McGinley from 21st to 71st and Graeme McDowell from 56th to 132nd.
The most dramatic climbers in the world rankings in the past year have been Sweden's Robert Karlsson, who rose from 216th to 31st place; India's Jeev Milka Singh, who jumped from 376th to 37th; another Swede, Johan Edfors, who moved from 410th up to 48th place; and American Brett Wetterich, who rose from 294th to a current position of 40th.
The importance of such upward movements for these players is that, thanks to their ranking among the world's top 50 at the end of the year, they are set for an invitation to next year's US Masters at Augusta.
Wales's Bradley Dredge currently occupies the 50th and final invite spot, which means England's Justin Rose is set to narrowly miss out, as he holds down 51st place.
With no tournaments over the next two weeks to affect the world rankings - although there can be weekly fluctuations even on non-counting weeks because of the weighted system used - Dredge looks set to gain that Augusta invitation at the expense of Rose.(Prize money in euro)
Order of Merit
1 Yong-eun Yang (Kor) 655,884
2 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 269,484
3 Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 259,178
4 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 256,666
5 Ernie Els (Rsa) 179,933
6 Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 178,900
7 Justin Rose (Eng)170,353
8 Marc Warren (Sco)167,651
9 Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 158,500
10 Nathan Green (Aus) 157,815
11 Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 154,569
12 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 134,183
13 Paul Casey (Eng)130,048
14 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 118,064
15 Padraig Harrington (Irl)118,064
16 Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 117,310
17 Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 115,000
18 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 109,160
19 Lee Westwood (Eng)91,700
20 Richard Green (Aus) 85,677
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