Ben Curtis vaulted up 129 spots in the Official World Golf Ranking to No. 156, but given the relative weakness of the Texas Open field his climb wasn’t nearly as dramatic as it could have been.
Curtis received 24 points for his two-stroke victory, the lowest total for a winner of a stand-alone PGA Tour event this season. Opposite-field events in Puerto Rico and Mexico also received 24 points, the minimum number awarded to Tour events.
Only one player from the top 20 in the world ranking (Matt Kuchar) played in San Antonio this week, dropping the event’s point total from 28 last year to 24. By comparison, last week’s Indonesian Masters – assigned “flagship” tournament status by Asian Tour officials – awarded 20 points to Sunday’s winner Lee Westwood.