Tiger Woods, ranked No. 1, nears PGA title record

VIRGINIA WATER, England, May 13 (UPI) -- Tiger Woods solidified his spot at the top of the men's world golf rankings with a win at the Players Championship.

Woods picked up his 78th PGA title -- four short of the all-time record owned by San Snead -- with a two-stroke win Sunday. He has won four of the last five tournaments he's played in, with a fourth-place finish at the Masters in the other event.

Woods has been atop the golf rankings for a total of 630 weeks -- more than 12 years -- and 299 weeks more than Greg Norman, who, at 331 weeks, has spent the second-most time at No. 1.

The only change in this week's golf Top 10 finds Brandt Snedeker, who was among those tied for eighth at the Players Championship, switching places with Luke Donald, who tied for 19th in the tournament. Snedeker is now fifth and Donald sixth.

Woods has a rankings points average of 13.66, well ahead of No. 2 Rory McIlroy's average of 10.42. McIlroy also tied for eighth Sunday.

Adam Scott is third with a 7.64 average while Justin Rose (6.57) is fourth. Snedeker's average is 6.31, not far ahead of Donald's 6.28.

Louis Oosthuizen is seventh at 5.76 followed by, in order Graeme McDowell (5.35), Steve Stricker (5.32) and Phil Mickelson (5.23).

Lee Westwood, another of the seven players who ended up tied for eighth at the Players Championship, pulls his average to 5.22, right behind Mickelson in 11th this week.

The three players who tied for second Sunday behind Woods made substantial gains in the rankings. Kevin Streelman moves up 18 places to 36th while David Lingmerth jumps from 162nd to 91st and Jeff Maggert, 429th a week ago, is now 151st.