Long way to No. 1: Tiger now 49th in OWGR

• By Ryan Ballengee
• Sep 19, 2011 4:51 PM ET

With the top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking in the iron grip of Englishman Luke Donald, most eyes peered lower on the ladder Sunday evening, toward the 50th spot. That’s the line Tiger Woods had to hold after play completed at the BMW Championship to maintain eligibility for his Chevron World Challenge in California in December.

Though Woods was passed by Bill Haas, Geoff Ogilvy and Sergio Garcia, the 14-time major champion came in at 49th in the ranking. Woods had to remain inside the top 50 to be able to offer himself a spot in the silly-season event.

Placing solo fourth in his adopted home state of Illinois, Donald expanded his lead on No. 2 Lee Westwood, who was not competing for world ranking points in the team-based Seve Trophy on the European Tour. Donald now leads  Westwood by 2.47 points.

Rory McIlroy remains in third as the idle Martin Kaymer moves up two spots back into fourth. Americans Steve Stricker and Dustin Johnson move to fifth and sixth, respectively.

On the back of his fifth-place finish at Cog Hill, playoff leader Webb Simpson cracked the top 15 for the first time in his career. Simpson is 13th in the latest ranking.

BMW Championship winner Justin Rose moved up to 17th from 40th with his victory outside of Chicago as PGA champion Keegan Bradley cracked the top 30 (28^th) with his T-16 finish.

Australian Ogilvy cemented his place on the international Presidents Cup team by finishing third in the next-to-last leg of the PGA Tour playoffs. Ogilvy moved from 50th to 39th. Fellow countryman and runner-up John Senden improved from 93rd to 62nd.