Woods falls out of the golf's Top 10

VIRGINIA WATER, England, May 23 (UPI) -- Tiger Woods Monday dropped out of the Top 10 of the men's world golf rankings for the first time in 14 years.

Woods slipped from eighth to 12th, marking the first time the Top 10 hasn't included his name since before the Masters in 1997, the year after he turned professional. Of course, 623 of those ensuing weeks, Woods was No. 1 in the world.

His drop in the rankings can be traced to personal problems that boiled over Thanksgiving weekend 2009 and health issues. Woods hasn't won a tournament since the JBWere Masters in November 2009 in Australia. His latest PGA Tour win was the 2009 BMW Championship.

Woods' fall was the biggest change among golf's elite but Masters champion Charl Schwartzel, who was fifth at the European Tour's match play event in Spain last week, jumped from 12th to seventh. The only other change in the Top 10 saw Steve Stricker slip from seventh to eighth.

Lee Westwood, with a rankings points average of 8.075 continues at No. 1 but No. 2 Luke Donald (8.025) is narrowing the gap while Martin Kaymer (7.487), Phil Mickelson (6.295) and Graeme McDowell (5.715) hold places 3-5, respectively.

Rory McIlroy (5.457) is sixth ahead of Schwartzel (5.156) and Stricker (5.150). Paul Casey (5.132) is ninth and Matt Kuchar (5.095) completes the Top 10.

Among last week's winners, David Toms, who took the PGA Tour's Colonial moved from 46th to 28th; European Tour match play winner Ian Poulter went from 22nd to 14th and Madiera Islands Open, another European Tour event, champion Michael Hoey leapt to No. 220 from 374th.