Padraig Harrington fell two spots to 122nd following his share of 56th in the Sony Open but Paul Dunne jumped 115 places to 553rd thanks to his first career top 10 in the Joburg Open.

Jason Day replaced Rory McIlroy as world number one after winning the BMW Championship by six shots in Chicago, write agencies.

Take a breather Leona Maguire, Olivia Mehaffey is leading this week's charge of the Irish women up the World Amateur Golf Rankings.

Rory McIlroy crowned a magnificent year when he was voted RTÉ Sports Person of the Year for 2014 last night. But it was also a positive day in many respects for Darren Clarke as he notched his best finish of a trying season in Dubai.

Shane Lowry moved up three spots to 51st in the world but is still a tantalising 0.12 world ranking points short of 50th ranked John Senden and a place in next year's Masters.

Pádraig Harrington is down another nine spots to 276th in the world rankings after losing his PGA Tour card by missing the cut in the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro.

Just a week shy of 18 years since he soared from 484th to 180th in the world thanks to a his rookie win in the Puegeot Open de España, Pádraig Harrington has now exited the world's Top 200.

Rory McIlroy has returned to No 6 in the Official World Golf Ranking ahead of this week's 25th anniversary Omega Dubai Desert Classic and his first meeting of the season with world No 1 Tiger Woods.

Graeme McDowell and Simon Thornton were Irish golf’s big winners in the world rankings in 2013 but it was a disappointing year for the other six players who ended the season inside the Top-300 - Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Pádraig Harrington, Michael Hoey, Darren Clarke and Peter Lawrie.