Ranking shake-up on the cards

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February 26, 2011

The top of the World Ranking list could be turned upside down after Sunday’s final of the WGC Match Play Championship.

The top of the World Ranking list could be turned upside down after Sunday’s final of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.

Martin Kaymer, who was two down coming down the closing stretch in Friday’s third round, but fought back with a four-birdie burst that ousted a shaken Hunter Mahan and sent the German into the Quarter-final, might well be the new World Number One by then.

If he can make it into the final, he’ll dethrone Lee Westwood, who once again was unable to get past the second round.

And Luke Donald, who cruised into the same quarter-final with his third comfortable victory, this time against 17-year-old Italian Mateo Manassero, could rocket from No 9 into the No 3 spot currently occupied by Tiger Woods – if he can go on to win Sunday’s Match play final.

The Englishman is set to meet the tough, match-play ace Ryan Moore, a former US Amateur champion, in Saturday’s Quarters while Kaymer is scheduled to take on fellow European Miguel Angel Jimenez, the wily Spanish veteran who will be going into his duel with Kaymer with fresh memories of the 7&6 thrashing he gave American Ben Crane in Friday’s third round.

Yes, that’s right, the same Ben Crane who crushed Northern Ireland’s upwardly mobile Rory McIlroy 8&7 in the second round, so yes, anything is still possible between now and Sunday.

And this especially within an 18-hole match play format which Tiger Woods has always referred to as “a sprint anyone can win” when compared with 72 holes of stroke play.

Graeme McDowell, good as he had looked, didn’t make it into the quarter finals. He was taken out by the quietly dangerous Korean YE Yang, who a couple of years ago did the same to Tiger Woods on the final day of the US PGA Championship, but the Northern Irishman did do enough to ensure that it will be he who replaces Woods as the World No 3 if Donald doesn’t go all the way to the title

Matt Kuchar, who faces Yang in the semifinals, is another who could make a significant move in the rankings.

The lanky American could crack the top 10 for the second time in his career if he wins on Sunday.

He’s currently 13th and would move to sixth if he takes the Match Play title

His highest previous ranking was 10th after the 2010 Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

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