GOLF TOUR NEWS:WHAT CAN be taken from Lee Westwood's ascension to world number one? Perhaps that anything and everything is possible, and Graeme McDowell – for one – will have some food for thought about what the future holds and the possibilities should the Ulsterman, who has moved to 10th in the latest world rankings, maintain the form and consistency displayed for the past year.

While no one would begrudge Westwood his elevation to the number one position – ending Tiger Woods’ 281-week reign at the top to become just the fifth European player to hold the position – it is worth noting other players have made greater actual impacts on the ranking, none more so than Luke Donald, who has made a nett gain of 172 points for his year’s work to date.

In fact, the four biggest movers in terms of nett points gained during 2010 (taking into account points lost from the 2008/2009 totals) are: Donald (172 points, moving from 29th to eighth); Matt Kuchar (163 points, from 62nd to 11th); Martin Kaymer (150 points, from 13th to third), and McDowell (135 points, from 40th to 10th).

Westwood – whose nett gain for the season so far is 38 points, the 279 points earned offset by dropping 241 points – has deservedly earned the top ranking based on the consistency which has seen him finish in the top-10 in 24 of the 46 tournaments he has played in over the past two years over which the ranking is based. Over that time, he has won three times (the Portuguese Masters and Dubai World Championship in 2009 and the St Jude Classic on the US Tour this season).

As he put it himself, “The world ranking is about consistency. It is not just about winning Majors – if that was the case, then every time someone won a Major they would automatically be world number one. We all know that isn’t the case. The world ranking is about consistency over a certain period and that’s why I am up there at the moment. It is a huge boost for my confidence and I hope I can play well enough to stay up there for a while.”

How long he stays at the top, however, depends on others as much himself. Westwood resumes tournament play at this week’s HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai facing the prospect that either Woods, Kaymer or Phil Mickelson could make his reign at the top a matter of days rather than weeks.

And Westwood wasn’t discounting Woods making a quick return to the top spot. “I would not write Tiger off, he has gone away and come back before. He will be there or thereabouts . . . . if anyone can put a run together it’s so close they could take the number one spot.

“But it has taken me a long time to reach world number one, (and) I’m not going to worry about who I am going to lose it to. This week is going to be very exciting for golf, with four people having a chance to get to number one. But I like those kind of rivalries.”

Westwood’s feat has been achieved despite a disrupted season which has seen him battle a calf muscle injury for the past four months, but – given he once slumped to 266th in the rankings in 2003 – his comeback to scale the greatest height of all would provide encouragement to those gathering behind.

For McDowell – who has moved to world number 10, the position Westwood occupied at the start of the 2009 season – is one of those on a fast-tracked upwardly mobile move which could see him overtake Rory McIlroy at this week’s big-money event in Shanghai. The man known as G-Mac is only 0.01 points behind McIlroy heading into the WGC tournament, where Pádraig Harrington, a winner just over a fortnight ago in Malaysia, marks his return to European Tour action.

McDowell’s latest career win in the Andalucian Masters at Valderrama on Sunday has also added some extra spice to the European Tour’s run-in, as he has moved within touching distance of Kaymer’s lead at the top of the Race to Dubai.

McDowell is €528,581 behind the German on the Order of Merit standings – but there is over €1 million to the winner in Shanghai, and the Ulsterman will also be playing the Hong Kong Open ahead of the season’s finale in Dubai where there will again be over €1 million to the winner.

Just three Irish players – McDowell, McIlroy and Harrington – are in action in the limited-field HSBC, but seven of them (McDowell, McIlroy, Harrington, Darren Clarke, Damien McGrane, Peter Lawrie and Gareth Maybin – all inside the top-35 on the European moneylist) are definitely into the field for the Dubai World Championship later this month, while Shane Lowry – in 61st place on the money list, with the top 60 getting tickets to the desert – has one more event, next week’s Singapore Open, left to earn his place.

World Rankings

1 Lee Westwood (Eng) 8.29pts

2 Tiger Woods (USA) 8.13

3 Martin Kaymer (Ger) 7.98

4 Phil Mickelson (USA) 7.83

5 Steve Stricker (USA) 7.20

6 Jim Furyk (USA) 7.09

7 Paul Casey (Eng) 6.14

8 Luke Donald (Eng) 5.70

9 Rory McIlroy (NIre) 5.44

10 Graeme McDowell (NIre) 5.43

11 Matt Kuchar (USA) 5.33

12 Ernie Els (Rsa) 5.13

13 Dustin Johnson (USA) 4.99

14 Ian Poulter (Eng) 4.49

15 Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 4.48

16 Hunter Mahan (USA) 4.48

17 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 4.25

18 Zach Johnson (USA) 4.06

19 Padraig Harrington (Ire) 4.00

20 Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 3.91