Oliver Bekker was the only South African to get a significant boost in his rankings with the latest list from the Official World Golf Ranking giving him a 17-place lift for his fourth-place finish in Abu Dhabi last week.

Bekker climbed to 335^th, and moved up to fill 18^th place on the list of South Africa’s top 25 players according to the official rankings list.

It was a week in which the Sunshine Tour took a breath between seasons, so locally based players had nothing to lift them up the rankings. Other players inside South Africa’s top 25 players by and large lost ground on the lists, bar a few who were lucky to have their positions bettered by algorithmic adjustments.

One of those was Thriston Lawrence, who  might have missed the cut in his venture into PGA Tour waters in the Dominican Republic last week, he rose one to 94^th nonetheless. Another was Deon Germishuys who was up three places to 322^nd, and Andrich Potgieter who was up one to 334^th.

South Africa’s top player remains Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who was unchanged at 58^th. He was still six spots ahead of Erik van Rooyen in 64^th. Van Rooyen was the previous highest-ranked South African.

South Africa’s top 25:

1. Christiaan Bezuidenhout 58 (unchanged)
2. Erik van Rooyen 64 (unchanged)
3. Thriston Lawrence 94 (up 1)
4. Zander Lombard 111 (down 4)
5. Louis Oosthuizen 119 (down 2)
6. Dean Burmester 122 (down 4)
7. Garrick Higgo 182 (down 5)
8. Dylan Frittelli 219 (down 6)
9. Hennie du Plessis 226 (down 6)
10. Ryan van Velzen 273 (down 2)
11. Ockie Strydom 274 (down 4)
12. Louis de Jager 281 (down 4)
13. Casey Jarvis 295 (down 8)
14. Jacques Kruyswijk 301 (down 8)
15. Jayden Schaper 309 (down 10)
16. Deon Germishuys 322 (up 3)
17. Aldrich Potgieter 334 (up 1)
18. Oliver Bekker 335 (up 17)
19. Shaun Norris 345 (down 4)
20. Jaco Ahlers 349 (unchanged)
21. MJ Daffue 359 (down 14)
22. Darren Fichardt 363 (down 4)
23. Jbe’ Kruger 376 (down 7)
24. Robin Williams 390 (down 9)
25. Charl Schwartzel 414 (down 12)