Gay jumps in rankings and into U.S. Open

VIRGINIA WATER, England, June 15 (UPI) -- Brian Gay's victory at the St. Jude Classic, his third PGA title, gave him a career-best world golf ranking and secured Gay a slot in this week's U.S. Open.

Gay won the Memphis tournament by five strokes Sunday and improved from 54th to 35th in the world. That is his highest ranking and marked his first time in his 15 years as a professional he's made the top 50. He started the year ranked 111th.

Gay needed the win to earn a spot in the U.S. Open. It will be his sixth trip to golf's second major of the year but he's never made the cut.

The final rankings before the U.S. Open saw no change among the top 16 spots.

Tiger Woods, the defending Open champion, is looking for his fourth U.S. Open title. No. 2-ranked Phil Mickelson has finished second four times at the U.S. Open, including in 2002 when Woods won on the Black Course at New York's Bethpage State Park, the site of this year's Open.

Paul Casey enters the tournament ranked third and Sergio Garcia has the No. 4 ranking. Geoff Ogilvy is ranked fifth ahead of No. 6 Henrik Stenson and No. 7 Kenny Perry. Steve Stricker, Vijay Singh and Jim Furyk round out the Top 10.