Ian Poulter believes he can build on his second place at The Players Championship, which saw him jump to a career-high 18th in the world rankings.

The Englishman fired a final round 70 at TPC Sawgrass in Florida to finish on eight under, four shots adrift of Ryder Cup team‑mate Henrik Stenson.

Poulter, who the week before the unofficial fifth major was joint fifth at the Quail Hollow Championship, leapt 12 places in the new rankings and is confident he can build on his display.

“The year has started out well, very solidly,” he told the Setanta Golf channel. “A second place here means a lot of world ranking points, exactly what I need to kick on and press on for the rest of the year.”

Poulter's chances of victory were wrecked by a 75 in the third round.

“I wanted to make a little bit of amends for Saturday,” said the 33-year-old. “I was pleased with how I finished the tournament and hats off to Henrik for putting his foot down and disappearing.”

Although Germany's Alex Cejka began the last day with a five-shot lead a nightmare 79 saw him slump to joint ninth, allowing Stenson to capitalise with a six-under-par final round.

Last year the Swede scored his first top-10 finish at the majors with a tie for third place at The Open and tie for fourth at the US PGA Championship. He said: “With the experience here, I know even better than before that I can pull it off when it matters.”

Stenson's win took him from ninth to fifth in the rankings, a position he last occupied two years ago.

Elsewhere, two-time major winner John Daly's drastically improved his position from 794th to 451st after finishing joint second in the Italian Open.

The American, who is serving a two‑month ban from the US Tour, closed with a 66 in Turin to finish 11 under, six behind Daniel Vancsik. The Argentine's victory has seen him rise from 420th to 213th in the rankings.