The biggest beneficiary on the Official World Golf Ranking list of a good week for South Africans at the Joburg Open was Darren Fichardt, as the veteran jumped a staggering 174 places to 354th on the rankings.
While he’s a long way off from his career-high of 75th, his second-place finish showed enough spark to suggest that his regaining his DP World Tour playing card will ignite a late-career surge this coming season and he can head up towards some higher numbers on the official list.
Thriston Lawrence, Dean Burmester, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Zander Lombard, Louis de Jager, Jacques Kruyswijk, Deon Germishuys and Dylan Frittelli were the other South African players inside the top 20 South Africans on the list who benefited from performances in the Joburg Open.
Burmester, with his winning showing, climbed 48 places to 106th, and with the South African Open Championship and the Alfred Dunhill Championship on his schedule over the next two weeks, he could get back inside the world’s top 100 and maybe even displace Lawrence as South Africa’s top-ranked player.
Kruyswijk got a substantial bump from his performance, climbing 65 places to 324th. Lombard was up 19, Frittelli 12, De Jager nine, Germishuys eight, Lawrence five and Bezuidenhout one.
The ranking story of the week, however, belongs to Nikhil Rama, who leapt 316 places to get inside the world’s top 1,000 for the first time with his sixth-place finish.
South Africa’s top 20:
- Thriston Lawrence 85 (up 5)
- Erik van Rooyen 88 (down 1)
- Dean Burmester 106 (up 48)
- Christiaan Bezuidenhout 114 (up 1)
- Zander Lombard 148 (up 19)
- Garrick Higgo 174 (unchanged)
- Hennie du Plessis 199 (down 1)
- MJ Daffue 244 (down 2)
- Ockie Strydom 248 (down 3)
- Louis de Jager 256 (up 9)
- Jaco Ahlers 288 (down 3)
- Oliver Bekker 294 (down 1)
- Casey Jarvis 319 (down 4)
- Jacques Kruyswijk 324 (up 65)
- Deon Germishuys 334 (up 8)
- Darren Fichardt 354 (up 174)
- George Coetzee 364 (down 9)
- Shaun Norris 395 (down 9)
- Dylan Frittelli 405 (up 12)
- Wilco Nienaber 416 (down 9)
