Bezuidenhout needs great week to get into world rankings top 50

Apr 2, 2024 | Featured, Features, Rankings

It’s the week before the Masters, and Christiaan Bezuidenhout is going to have to pull out all the stops in the PGA Tour’s tournament this week if he is to rise enough on the Official World Golf Ranking list to earn a last-minute invitation to Augusta National.

Bezuidenhout has played the year’s first major championship three times – he missed out last year after playing every year since 2020 – and, although he only has a best finish of a share of 38^th, it is the one major that seems tailor-made for his precise game.

He went down three places to 58^th on the latest world rankings list, and, with players inside the top 50 not already exempt at the conclusion of this week, he has to call on all his skills if he is to get to drive down Magnolia Lane next week. He will be in action at the Valero Texas Open.

It was a quiet week for the top 25 South African players on the list, with most players either up of down based on mathematical calculations or on simply middling performances. Jacques Kruyswijk was the biggest climber on the list, up nine places to 295^th on the whim of the algorithm as he was not in action last week. He’s back inside the world’s top 300, having been heading that way with a series of solid if unspectacular performances since the beginning of the year. He is still, however, a long way off his best ranking of 192^nd which he reached after winning the post-COVID-19 Sunshine Tour Invitational in 2021.

South Africa’s top 25: