Darren Clarke has moved to a career-best ninth in the world golf rankings after his win in the Dimension Data Pro-Am in South Africa.

Clarke's win in Sun City jumps him three places up the rankings.

The Northern Ireland moved into the top 10 for the first time in October before dropping down a couple of places late in the year.

However, the win in South Africa means Clarke is moving in the right direction again.

Clarke is on record as saying that he hopes to move into the top five in the rankings this season.

The South African victory was also the start of what could end in a lucrative win bonus for Clarke.

His sponsor, Dimension Data, has agreed to pay Clarke $1m if he wins four tournaments this year.

Davis Love's victory at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in California moves the American above Colin Montgomerie in the rankings.

Love is now sixth with the Scotman dropping to seventh.

Michael Campbell's win at Heineken Classic in Perth pushes him above Sergio Garcia into 15th position.

Leading world rankings - previous position in brackets (US unless stated):

1. (1) Tiger Woods 27.73 points average
2. (2) Ernie Els (South Africa) 11.62
3. (3) Phil Mickelson 11.16
4. (4) David Duval 9.39
5. (5) Lee Westwood (Britain) 9.09
6. (7) Davis Love III 8.71
7. (6) Colin Montgomerie (Britain) 8.34
8. (8) Vijay Singh (Fiji) 7.46
9. (12) Darren Clarke (Britain) 7.01
10. (9) Hal Sutton 6.99
11. (11) Jim Furyk 6.70
12. (10) Tom Lehmann 6.66
13. (13) Nick Price (Zimbabwe) 6.16
14. (14) Jesper Parnevik (Sweden) 6.03
15. (16) Michael Campbell (New Zealand) 5.78
16. (15) Sergio Garcia (Spain) 5.55
17. (17) Stewart Cink 5.37
18. (18) Thomas Bjorn (Denmark)5.04
19. (21) Mike Weir (Canada) 4.96
20. (20) Loren Roberts 4.95