Mickelson nipping at Tiger's heels

WORLD RANKINGS:CAN TIGER Woods hear the not so soft footsteps of his nemesis Phil Mickelson in the left-hander's quest to dethrone him as world number one?

It might not happen this week at the Bay Hill Invitational (where Woods is playing and Mickelson isn’t), or even at next week’s Houston Open (where Mickelson is playing and Woods isn’t), but the prospects of it happening are more realistic than at any time in the rivalry between the pair after Mickelson moved to within just 0.2 points of the long-time world number one in the latest official world rankings released yesterday.

When Woods won the US Open at Torrey Pines last June, he was 11 points ahead of Mickelson in the rankings. Since then, of course, Woods endured eight months of inactivity after undergoing knee surgery and Mickelson has gradually whittled away at the lead to the point now where he could conceivably leapfrog into the top spot depending on what happens in Florida and Houston over the next fortnight.

Woods has been the world number one for the last 198 weeks and for a total of 540 weeks in his honour-laden career. Mickelson, so far, has never had the honour of being world number one. The other players, apart from Woods, to have held the position of official world number one in the 22-year history of the rankings are: Bernhard Langer, Seve Ballesteros, Greg Norman, Nick Faldo , Ian Woodsman, Fred Couples, Nick Price, Tom Lehman, Ernie Els, David Duval and Vijay Singh.

Woods can ensure he stays at top spot heading into the US Masters by finishing first or second in Bay Hill this week. If he doesn’t finish in the top-two, then Mickelson could overtake him at next week’s Houston Open.

This is Woods’s third comeback tournament since his surgery and it comes at a course where he has won no fewer than five times in his career, on four successive occasions from 2000-2003 and again in 2008.

World Rankings

1 Tiger Woods (USA) 8.86pts

2 Phil Mickelson (USA) 8.66

3 Garcia Sergio (Spa) 7.53

4 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 6.36

5 Pádraig Harrington (Irl) 5.91

6 Vijay Singh (Fij) 5.86

7 Camilo Villegas (Col) 4.94

OTHERS: 17 Rory McIlroy (NIrl) 3.93; 44 Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 2.45; 76 Darren Clarke (Irl) 1.75; 88 Gareth Maybin (NIrl) 1.56.

Race To Dubai

1 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) €1367086.00

2 Paul Casey (Eng) €1145238.00

3 Rory McIlroy (NIrl) €885041.00

4 Oliver Wilson (Eng) €853045.00

5 Sergio Garcia (Spa) €852944.00

6 Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa)€565984.00

7 Alvaro Quiros (Spa) €548274.00

8 Henrik Stenson (Swe) €522817.00

9 Ross Fisher (Eng) €494846.00

10 Richard Sterne (Rsa) €493925.00