Lawrence climbs inside top 50 on latest Official World Golf Ranking

Sep 24, 2024 | Featured, Features, Rankings

Thriston Lawrence might have missed out on a victory over the weekend, but his inexorable rise in status was acknowledged by a 15-place boost on the last list issued by the Official World Golf Ranking.

That share of second in a play-off loss to Billy Horschel (and Rory McIlroy) at the DP World Tour’s BMW PGA Championship took Lawrence to a career-high of 47^th on the list and inside the world’s top 50 for the first time.

Lawrence started the year at 62^nd, and slipped outside the world’s top 100 around the time of the PGA Championship. Since then, however, it’s been a steady climb into the kind of territory he certainly seems capable of inhabiting with ease. It also is the kind of territory he needs to continue to occupy for the rest of the year to grab himself an invitation to Augusta National and the Masters next April.

He was the only player inside the top 25 South Africans according to the official listing to climb, except for Deon Germishuys, who was up one place after his share of fifth in the Sunshine Tour’s Vodacom Origins of Golf event at Sishen.

But outside the top 25, there were some notable performances: Up to a career-high of 610^th was Yurav Premlall, up 78 places with his maiden victory on the Sunshine Tour. Martin Vorster has emerged from a tough period and he was up 160 places to 973^rd.

The biggest jump came from Justin Walters, who was up 176 places to 542^nd with his second-place finish on the Challenge Tour.

South Africa’s top-ranked golfer remains Christiaan Bezuidenhout, unchanged at 45^th – but Lawrence is clearly on the rise and could soon replace him.

South Africa’s top 25: