Woods increases lead in world rankings, again

Oct 2, 2006, 19:35 GMT

Philadelphia, PA - As Tiger Woods continues to win, his hold on the No. 1 ranking in the world continues to be strengthened.

Woods won the American Express Championship for the fifth time on Sunday -- his 12th individual World Golf Championships win -- to claim his sixth straight victory in a PGA Tour event.

In the latest Official World Golf Rankings, Woods leads No. 2 Jim Furyk by 14.38 average points. His lead was 13.36 points over last week's No. 2, Phil Mickelson.

Furyk moved back into the second-ranked spot this week after finishing fourth at the Amex. Mickelson took the week off and dipped to third, where he was followed by Adam Scott, who moved up one place to fourth after tying for second place behind Woods on Sunday.

Vijay Singh dropped one spot to fifth, Ernie Els replaced Retief Goosen in sixth, and Goosen was followed by Luke Donald, Sergio Garcia and Geoff Ogilvy, who held onto positions 8-10.

Henrik Stenson, Trevor Immelman, David Howell and Colin Montgomerie also retained their spots from 11-14.

The last change in the top 20 came when Chris DiMarco replaced David Toms in 15th, dropping Toms to 16th. Paul Casey, Jose Maria Olazabal, Padraig Harrington and Tim Clark followed.

Elsewhere, D.J. Trahan won the Southern Farm Bureau Classic for his first PGA Tour title, moving him up 104 places to 161st.

© 2006 The Sports Network