World men's golf rankings juggled

VIRGINIA WATER, England, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- The first six places, led by No. 1 Tiger Woods, held steady in the men's world golf rankings but the lower half of the Top 10 saw quite a bit of repositioning.

Woods, who has left the PGA Tour for personal reasons, has a commanding lead for the top spot while Phil Mickelson is second and Steve Stricker third in the rankings released Monday.

British player Lee Westwood is fourth followed by Jim Furyk in fifth and No. 6 German Martin Kaymer. The other four top-rated players are Americans.

After that the rankings saw considerable change. England's Paul Casey went from ninth to seventh, which pushed Irish player Padraig Harrington down one spot to eighth.

Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy re-entered the Top 10 at No. 9 and Swede Henrik Stenson went from eighth to 10th. English player Ian Poulter fell out of the Top 10 and is 11th.

Among last week's tournament winners, Swede Robert Karlsson, 31st a week ago, won the European PGA Tour's Qatar Masters and is ranked 17th; and Ben Crane won the PGA Tour's Farmers insurance Open and improved his ranking from 109th to 56th.