McIlroy, Casey rise in world golf rankings

VIRGINIA WATER, England, July 19 (UPI) -- Rory McIlroy and Paul Casey tied for third at the British Open, finishes that allowed them to each inch up in the Top 10 of the world men's golf rankings.

McIlroy grabbed attention with an opening-round 63 at St. Andrews but fell victim to the winds of Friday and shot 80 in the second round. Casey was within three strokes of eventual winner Louis Oosthuizen after eight holes Sunday but a triple-bogey at the 12th hole shoved him back.

Still, they tied Henrik Stenson for third. As a result McIlroy moved from ninth to seventh while Casey went from 10th to eighth in the latest world rankings.

Oosthuizen leaped from 54th to 15th and runner-up Lee Westwood retained his No. 3 ranking from a week ago. Stenson improved from 33rd to 22nd.

The top six are unchanged with Tiger Woods, for the 609th week of his career, is No. 1. Woods tied for 23rd at St. Andrews. Phil Mickelson, who tied for 48th, is second in the world.

After Westwood is Steve Stricker (tied for 55th in the British Open) and No. 5 Jim Furyk and seventh-ranked Ernie Els, who both missed the cut.

Luke Donald (tie for 11th) was pushed down from seventh to ninth and Ian Poulter (tie for 60th) from eighth to 10th because of the moves by McIlroy and Casey.