Only Els, Mickelson, Furyk, Woods and Garcia ahead of Harrington

Sergio Garica, pictured with Padraig Harrington after the third round of The Open at Muirfileld this year, will beat the Dubliner’s Top-100 run later this year. Picture Eoin Clarke www.golffile.ie:Padraig Harrington fell another four places to 105th in the latest Official World Golf Rankings.

Harrington’s presence in the Top 100 ended last week after 14 years, 1 month and 27 days, which means that only five players have had a longer, unbroken presence in the Top 100 - major winers Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods and Spain’s Sergio Garcia.

  • Ernie Els, since 1 March 1992 - 21 years, 7 months, 20 days
  • Phil Mickelson, since 22 August 1993 - 20 years, 1 month, 29 days
  • Jim Furyk, since 15 October 1995 - 18 years, 6 days
  • Tiger Woods, since 6 October 1996 - 17 years, 15 days
  • Sergio Garcia, since 4 July 1999, 14 years, 3 months, 17 days
  • Padraig Harrington, from 15 August 1999 to 12 October 2013, 14 years, 1 month, 27 days

McIlroy joins Harrington, Graeme McDowell (No 12), Shane Lowry (No 72) and sponsor’s invitee Paul McGinley (No 391) in this week’s BMW Masters at Lake Malaren in Shanghai.

Michael Hoey moved up five spots to world No 217 while Peter Lawrie, who shared 18th place with Hoey in the Perth International on Sunday to keep his European Tour card, climbed one place to world No 250.

Simon Thornton fell five places to world No 274 with Darren Clarke also down five places to No 279.

Irish world rankings

  1. 6 Rory McIlroy
  2. 12 Graeme McDowell
  3. 72 Shane Lowry
  4. 105 Padraig Harrington
  5. 217 Michael Hoey
  6. 250 Peter Lawrie
  7. 274 Simon Thornton
  8. 279 Darren Clarke
  9. 303 Damien McGrane
  10. 354 Gareth Maybin
  11. 384 David Higgins
  12. 391 Paul McGinley
  13. 521 Gareth Shaw
  14. 777 Alan Dunbar
  15. 1125 Niall Kearney
  16. 1152 Niall Turner
  17. 1192 Jonathan Caldwell
  18. 1192 Dermot McElroy (am)
  19. 1199 Kevin Phelan