GOLF: DAVID Howell has moved up to 15th in the offical world rankings after his 11th-placed finish in the British Masters at The Belfry.

Howell exceeded all expectations in the competition to finish six-under par overall and now hopes to take his form into this weekend's Irish Open despite a slight fitness worry.

The 30-year-old Swindon man is now ahead of Geoff Oglivy, Tim Clark, Stuart Appleby, Davis Love-III and Darren Clarke but one place behind Chris DiMarco on 4.11 points.

  • Official World Rankings: 1 Tiger Woods (USA) 17.18pts ave, 2 Phil Mickelson (USA) 9.66, 3 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 8.2, 4 Vijay Singh (Fij) 7.75, 5 Jim Furyk (USA) 6.63, 6 Ernie Els (Rsa) 6.05, 7 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 5.85, 8 Adam Scott (Aus) 5.31, 9 David Toms (USA) 5.28, 10 Luke Donald (Eng) 4.61, 11 Jose M Olazabal (Spa) 4.38, 12 Henrik Stenson (Swe) 4.25, 13 Chad Campbell (USA) 4.22, 14 Chris DiMarco (USA) 4.16, 15 David Howell (Eng) 4.11, 16 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 4.11, 17 Tim Clark (Rsa) 4.05, 18 Stuart Appleby (Aus) 3.92, 19 Davis Love-III (USA) 3.88, 20 Darren Clarke (NIrl) 3.85.
  • Michelle Wie is set to make her debut on the men's European Tour in September at the Omega European Masters in Switzerland.

The announcement is bound to become a talking point at this week's Irish Open and in the build up to the 16-year-old American's appearance at Crans-sur-Sierre.

Wie will become the only the second woman ever to compete on the circuit and will hope to do considerably better than the first. England's Laura Davies finished next to last in Australia two years ago.

Two weeks ago Wie, who turned professional last October just before her birthday, went to Korea and made her first cut in a men's event.