Mahan leaps to No. 4 in golf rankings

Hunter Mahan jumps 10 places to No. 4 in the men's world golf rankings just before the year's first major tournament. Mahan was a 1-stroke winner at the Houston Open. It was his fifth PGA title overall and second this year. He won the WGC-Accenture Match Play in February. Mahan started the year 19th in the world and was 14th a week ago before leaping to fourth this week. Luke Donald (9.702) is the No. 1-ranked golfer going into the Masters, which begins Thursday in Augusta, Ga. Rory McIlroy is second at 9.592 and Lee Westwood (7.759) sits in third. Mahan has a rankings point average of 5.750 and Steve Stricker (5.668) remains fifth. Each of the other Top 10 players are pushed down one place this week, except for Martin Kaymer (5,641), who goes from fourth to sixth, and Adam Scott, who was 10th a week ago but is now 13th. Scott opened the year ranked No. 5. Tiger Woods (5.528) slips from sixth to seventh while Charl Schwartzel (5.091) is eighth, Justin Rose (5.058) comes in at No. 9 and Webb Simpson (5.035) is 10th. The winner of the European Tour's Sicilian Open, Thorbjorn Olesen goes from 154th to No. 100 this week. Oleson's win in Sicily was his first on the European Tour.