Snedeker up to fourth in golf rankings

VIRGINIA WATER, England, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Brandt Snedeker continues his climb up the men's world golf rankings, using his latest PGA Tour win to reach No. 4.

Snedeker started 2012 ranked 38th in the world but has been moving up since there, using a January 2012 title to reach the Top 20 and the Tour Championship last September to get to 10th.

That was his ranking going into 2013 and he'd reached No. 6 before Sunday's win at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am boosts his to fourth in the rankings.

Rory McIlroy is No. 1 for a 34th week overall, with as ranking point average of 12.0327. The record holder for weeks atop the ranking (623) is No. 2 Tiger Woods, whose current average is 9.0318. Luke Donald remains third at 7.5834.

Snedeker's average improves to 6.9116, which pushes Justin Rose (6.4407) to fifth and Louis Oosthuizen (6.4403) to No. 6.

Adam Scott has the seventh-best average (5.8542) followed by, in order, Lee Westwood (5.4997), Bubba Watson (5.2847) and Phil Mickelson (5.1565).

Richard Sterne won the European Tour's Joburg Open in South Africa Sunday. It was his first title since December 2009. That lifts him to No. 55 in the rankings, a 39-spot improvement from last week.