Woods among golf Top 10 as '13 tour starts

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VIRGINIA WATER, England, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- There are six players, including Tiger Woods, opening 2013 in the world golf rankings Top 10 who weren't that highly ranked at the beginning of 2012.

The biggest move was by Louis Oosthuizen, who was 40th at the beginning of 2012 but is No. 6 this week. Woods, who holds the record for weeks at No. 1, was 23rd at the end of 2011 but was ranked No. 2 for a good portion of 2012. He will open 2013 at No. 3.

Brandt Snedeker moves from 38th to 10th; Jason Dufner goes from 33rd to ninth while Bubba Watson improves from 21st to eighth and Justin Rose, 18th a year ago, is fourth as the 2013 PGA Tour calendar starts.

The European Tour has completed a pair of tournaments on the 2013 schedule already but the PGA Tour 2013 edition opens this week with the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.

Rory McIlroy is ranked No. 1 in the world while Luke Donald, who was No. 1 at the end of 2011, is second. McIlroy has a rankings points average of 13.219 and Donald is at 8.622, narrowly ahead of Woods, who is at 8.533.

The next four -- places 4-7 -- are grouped close together. Rose's average is 6.418 and No. 5 Adam Scott (also fifth at the start of the 2012 season) is 6.207 followed by Oosthuizen (6.140) and Lee Westwood (6.033).

Watson's average is 5.295 while Dufner comes in at 5.291 and Snedeker is at 5.225 for the No. 10 spot.