Jyoti Randhawa, who achieved the unique distinction of winning a title in his rookie year on the Japanese PGA Tour, added another feather to his cap when he became the highest ranked Indian professional golfer ever in the history of the World Rankings, which is endorsed by the six leading Tours of the world.
According the latest year-ending rankings released this week, Randhawa rose to 133rd position in the world, and was the third-best Asian player (excluding the Japanese PGA Tour pros) after world No 2 Vijay Singh of Fiji and world No 21 Choi Kyung-ju of Korea.
The previous best position achieved by an Indian was 141 by Jeev Milkha Singh in early 1999 after he finished second and third in successive weeks in two South African tournaments on the European Tour.
Randhawa's rise was aided by his Suntory Open victory on the Japanese PGA Tour, a runner-up finish at the Hero Honda Masters and his third place at the Volvo Masters of Asia. The Gurgaon golfer had 1.09 average points over the last two years, the period taken into consideration while awarding points.
"While it is a good milestone against my name, and I am happy that I continued to make progress throughout the year, this is just a minor stop in a long journey ahead for me," said Randhawa, who is taking a well-deserved year-end break from golf. "Ideally, I would like to be in the top-50 so that I get entry into all the major tournaments," he added.
Among the other Indians, Arjun Atwal, who recently became the first Indian to qualify for the US PGA Tour, was 229th, Arjun Singh was 544th, Jeev 553rd, while Amandeep Johl was ranked 560th in the world.
Among the Asians, the next two after Vijay, Choi and Randhawa, were SK Ho of Korea (148th) and Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand (150th).
Tiger Woods continued to reign supreme, stretching his stay at the top of the World Rankings for a record 229 weeks. He is now 32 weeks short of Greg Norman's record of 331 weeks as No 1 golfer of the world in 11 different periods between 1986 to 1998.
World rankings (top-5): 1. Tiger Woods, USA, 14.58; 2. Vijay Singh, Fiji, 9.77; Ernie Els, SAF, 8.41; 4. Davis Love III, USA, 7.53; Jim Furyk, USA, 6.81.
ASIA (top-5 - world ranking in parenthesis): 1. Vijay Singh,Fiji, 9.77 (2); 2. Choi Kyung-ju, Kor, 3.28 (21); 3. Jyoti Randhawa, Ind 1.09 (133); 4. SK Ho, Kor, 1.01 (148); 5. Thongchai Jaidee, Tha, 1.01 (150).
INDIA (top-5 - world ranking in parenthesis): 1. Jyoti Randhawa, 1.09 (133); 2. Arjun Atwal, 0.61 (229); 3. Arjun Singh, 0.16 (544); 4. Jeev Milkha Singh, 0.15 (553); 5. Amandeep Johl 0.14 (560).
