Brandon Stone’s fine 64-64 finish at the weekend gave him a 48-place boost on the latest listing from the Official World Golf Ranking to 355^th, which is his best ranking since the second half of 2022.

Stone’s seventh-place finish in the DP World Tour’s Volvo China Open also lifted him back inside the list of South Africa’s best 25 golfers according to the official rankings, relegating Robin Williams to number 26 locally, at 399^th on the list.

Stone’s climb comes after a week during which the Sunshine Tour’s Tournament of Champions carried no world ranking points. So the winner in that event, Louis Albertse, saw his ranking slip six places to 500^th on the list, but, as the new Sunshine Tour season gets underway at Royal Harare in Zimbabwe this week, that should change as he rides a wave of form.

For all other players inside South Africa’s top 25 this week, it was a case of all fall down, except for Hennie du Plessis and Jaco Ahlers. Du Plessis was up one to 226^th as a result of changes to players around him on the list, and Ahlers was up two to 354^th for a similar reason.

South Africa’s top 25:

1. Christiaan Bezuidenhout 54 (down 1)
2. Erik van Rooyen 66 (down 3)
3. Thriston Lawrence 100 (down 5)
4. Zander Lombard 113 (down 1)
5. Louis Oosthuizen 125 (down 5)
6. Dean Burmester 130 (down 4)
7. Garrick Higgo 188 (down 3)
8. Hennie du Plessis 226 (up 1)
9. Dylan Frittelli 230 (down 7)
10. Ryan van Velzen 281 (down 4)
11. Casey Jarvis 286 (unchanged)
12. Ockie Strydom 288 (down 7)
13. Louis de Jager 301 (down 6)
14. Jacques Kruyswijk 304 (down 8)
15. Jayden Schaper 320 (down 2)
16. Deon Germishuys 330 (down 2)
17. Aldrich Potgieter 340 (down 5)
18. Shaun Norris 341 (down 4)
19. Oliver Bekker 350 (down 4)
20. Wilco Nienaber 353 (down 4)
21. Jaco Ahlers 354 (up 2)
22. Brandon Stone 355 (up 48)
23. Jbe’ Kruger 379 (down 13)
24. Darren Fichardt 380 (down 8)
25. MJ Daffue 382 (down 13)