ESPN Golf

Break up the Big Five.

Professional golf's elite quintet of players -- dubbed with said nickname ever since the Official World Golf Ranking consisted of a top-five including Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Retief Goosen, Vijay Singh and Ernie Els beginning the week of Sept. 26, 2004 -- has a new member this week.

With his playoff victory over Trevor Immelman in the Wachovia Championship on Sunday, Jim Furyk earned enough World Ranking points to surpass Els into fifth place on the list. Furyk was previously ranked seventh in the world, but his win against a strong field -- the Wachovia included 10 of the world's top 11 players -- bumped his points average from 5.73 to 6.87.

According to the Offficial World Golf Ranking Web site, this marks the first time in the last six seasons that Els has been ranked outside of the top five. Hampered by a knee injury that curtailed his 2005 campaign in August, the Big Easy has three top-10 finishes in eight PGA Tour starts this year.

Sergio Garcia dropped from sixth to seventh in the standings.

There is an involved formula for ranking golf's professionals. According to www.owgr.com, "The World Ranking points for each player are accumulated over a two year 'rolling' period with the points awarded in the most recent 13-week period doubled. ... Each player is then ranked according to his average points per tournament, which is determined by dividing his total number of points by the tournaments he has played over that two-year period."