Garcia takes break after shooting back into the world’s top 20

The 31-year-old’s victory in the Andalucia Masters at Valderrama on Sunday qualified him for the WGC-HSBC Champions event he won in 2008, but his place goes instead to American Jim Furyk.

Garcia is back into the world’s top 20 after taking his home Castello Masters by a runaway 11-shot margin and then beating fellow Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez by one.

The China tournament is also without world No 1 Luke Donald – his wife Diane is expecting their second child – twice winner Phil Mickelson and a host of other eligible players.

Rory McIlroy will be there, though, after grabbing golf’s richest prize of £1.25m in the Shanghai Masters and the other world top 10 players in the 78-man field are Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Adam Scott.

Garcia climbed from 31st to 18th in the world following his second successive victory at the Andalucia Masters.

The former No 2 was down at 78th on the rankings at the start of the season and of the players now above him only American Webb Simpson has made a bigger leap forward this year.

He began 2011 at 213th and is currently ninth.

Latest world rankings: 1 L Donald 10.62pts, 2 L Westwood 7.50, 3 Ry McIlroy 7.33, 4 D Johnson 6.15, 5 S Stricker 6.13, 6 M Kaymer 6.01, 7 J Day 5.65, 8 A Scott 5.52, 9 W Simpson 5.32, 10 M Kuchar 5.32, 11 P Mickelson 5.26, 12 N Watney 5.16, 13 KJ Choi 4.77, 14 C Schwartzel 4.59, 15 G McDowell 4.36, 16 B Watson 4.18, 17 J Rose 4.10, 18 Sergio Garcia 4.04, 19 D Toms 3.98, 20 H Mahan 3.96. Other leading Europeans: 22 P Casey, 24 R Karlsson, 27 T Bjorn, 28 I Poulter, 32 S Dyson, 33 D Clarke, 34 A Hansen, 36 MA Jimenez, 38 F Molinari, 40 M Laird, 44 A Quiros, 48 M Manassero, 52 P Hanson, 54 F Jacobson, 60 E Molinari, 67 A Noren, 73 N Colsaerts, 78 P Harrington, 79 J Donaldson, 81 R Fisher, 89 D Lynn, 90 P Larrazabal, 94 R Jacquelin, 97 F Andersson Hed, 99 C Pettersson, 100 M Hoey.

‘Race to Dubai’ money list: 1 L Donald £3,343,501, 2 R McIlroy £2,205,281, 3 C Schwartzel £1,807,017, 4 M Kaymer £1,723,640, 5 L Westwood £1,683,124, 6 A Hansen £1,402,841, 7 S Garcia £1,370,511, 8 T Bjorn £1,282,305, 9 S Dyson £1,179,005, 10 D Clarke £1,167,123, 11 MA Jimenez £1,075,698, 12 A Noren £1,034,374, 13 P Larrazabal £872,102, 14 N Colsaerts £831,778, 15 A Quiros £801,868, 16 T Aiken £793,779, 17 P Hanson £774,121, 18 M Hoey £758,155, 19 F Molinari £732,341, 20 I Poulter £698,256.

European Ryder Cup table – European list: 1 S Garcia 833,330, 2 M Hoey 618,577, 3 R McIlroy 608,110, 4 T Lewis 441,017, 5 T Bjorn 430,896, 6 D Lynn 429,064, 7 S Dyson 388,561, 8 MA Jimenez 387,963, 9 R Cabrera-Bello 365,359, 10 R Ramsay 365,279.

World list: 1 L Donald 100.32, 2 R McIlroy 77.79, 3 S Garcia 71.93, 4 J Rose 71.55, 5 M Hoey 55.42, 6 T Bjorn 52.43, 7 S Dyson 50.16, 8 D Lynn 45.02, 9 Tom Lewis 37.00, 10 S Little 36.00.