Tiger Woods officially tops golf rankings

VIRGINIA WATER, England, March 26 (UPI) -- Tiger Woods has officially returned to the No. 1 spot in the men's world golf rankings.

Woods finished off a win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational Monday that allowed him to pass Rory McIlroy for the top spot in the world rankings. This marks his record 624th week as the world's top-ranked golfer. Greg Norman has been No. 1 the second-most weeks -- 331.

The win at Bay Hill in Orlando, Fla., was the 77th career PGA title for Woods, and his eighth at that event. Sam Snead won the Greater Greensboro Open eight times, no one has won the same PGA tournament nine times. Snead, with 82 wins, is the only player ahead of Woods on the all-time list for PGA championships.

The move up in the rankings for Woods knocks McIlroy to second but the entire Top Five in the rankings is changed from last week. Justin Rose, who was second to Woods at Bay Hill, moves from fifth to No. 3. Luke Donald, who missed the cut last week for the first time in a European Tour event, drops to fourth and Brandt Snedeker is now fifth.

Also, Keegan Bradley, who tied for third at the Palmer tournament, is up three places to No. 10.

Woods has a rankings point average of 11.87 while McIlroy comes in at 11.29.

Rose increased his average to 7.11 with Donald at 6.86 and Snedeker's average is 6.39.

Louis Oosthuizen remains ranked No. 6 with an average of 6.05 followed by, in order, Adam Scott (5.82), Steve Stricker (5.74) and Matt Kuchar (5.38). Bradley's average of 5.25 edged him past Phil Mickelson (5.24) for 10th.

Kiradech Aphibarnrat won last week's Maybank Malaysian Open on the European Tour and jumps from 170th to No. 85 in the rankings.