Whatever you think of the world rankings — and there are plenty of people who believe they do not amount to a hill of beans — this week’s have thrown up information that could generate some interesting questions.

For example, who has more players in the top ten, Europe or the United States? A follow-up question could be: which of these two has the greater number of players in the top 20?

You would expect the answer to both questions to be the US, given that Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker are Nos 1, 2, and 3. In fact, the presence of Paul Casey, Lee Westwood, Padraig Harrington and Henrik Stenson, at fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh respectively, and Sergio García, who is ninth, means that there are five Europeans in the top ten, the same as the US, and nine in the top 20, one more than the Americans.

“We did a survey in April this year on the 23rd anniversary of the starting of the rankings and found there were eight Europeans in the top 20 and that was the most there had been to that date,” Ian Barker, the rankings administrator, said. “Things have obviously improved from the Europeans’ point of view since then.”

The presence of four Englishmen in the top 20 highlights the considerable change in fortune since May 2002. Then, Westwood was the highest-ranked Englishman, at No 51.

• Doug Barron has been suspended for one year by the PGA Tour in the United States for using an unspecified performance-enhancing drug. He is the first player to violate the doping policy since testing began in July 2008. Barron has not played a full PGA Tour schedule since 2006. The 40-year-old apologised yesterday in a statement through the tour, saying he did not intend to gain an unfair advantage.