Woods jumps in world golf rankings

VIRGINIA WATER, England, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Tiger Woods' victory at the Chevron World Challenge in California boosted him to No. 21 in the world golf rankings.

Woods spent a record 623 weeks as the world's top golfer, a string that ended Oct. 31, 2010, about 11 months after a domestic scandal scrambled his personal life and shook his professional career.

Even after dropping out of the top spot, Woods had enough ranking strength built up to end last year ranked No. 2. As those points were factored out, however, he eventually hit a low of 58th. He was No. 52 last week.

Woods won the World Challenge by a stroke Sunday. He was 10-under for the event, including a solid 3-under 69 in the final round. That boosts his world ranking 31 spots to 21st.

Matt Kuchar, who finished tied for fourth at the World Challenge, again switched places with Nick Watney and moved up one spot to 10th. Dustin Johnson slips two spots to seventh, allowing Steve Stricker to go from sixth to fifth and Adam Scottt to take the No. 6 place.

Luke Donald, No. 1 for the last 28 weeks, has a rankings point average of 10.197 with Rory McIlroy, who won a European Tour event in China Sunday, second at 8.144. Lee Westwood, who claimed a win at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa, is third with an average of 8.083.

Martin Kaymer is fourth at 6.911, followed by Stricker (5.667), Scott (5.626) and Johnson (5.585). Jason Day is at the No. 8 spot with an average of 5.309 and Webb Simpson comes in ninth at 5.202. Kuchar's average is 4.995.

Woods' ranking average is 3.743.