Shaun Norris won for the eighth time on the Japan Golf Tour at the weekend, and that gave him a 19-place boost up the latest list issued on Monday by the Official World Golf Ranking to 93rd.

Norris defeated Japan’s Yusuke Sakamoto on the second hole of a sudden-death play-off for his triumph, and his dream tenure on the Japan Golf Tour continues. He first won back in 2016, when he was the tour’s Rookie of the Year, and his victories include the Japan Golf Tour Championship in 2017 and the Japan Open Golf Championship in 2021. The latter event is regarded as a Japanese major championship, and he has also been runner-up twice in that.

It has been a lucrative move for Norris, who has won four times on the Sunshine Tour. He was won of R76-million on the Japan Golf Tour, and it has kept him on the radar as one of South Africa’s best players – even if his achievements are not widely acknowledged locally as those of some of his peers.

The official rankings regard him as South Africa’s fourth best player, behind the top-ranked Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Erik van Rooyen and Thriston Lawrence. His current position of 93rd is 39 places below his career-best of 54th, achieved after his share of sixth in the 2020 Abu Dhabi Championship on the DP World Tour.

Bezuidenhout and Lawrence both achieved modest boosts from their share of 12th in the US Open, while Casey Jarvis and Aldrich Potgieter both climbed slightly thanks to the shuffling around of players near them in the rankings.

The rest of South Africa’s top 25 were all down, mainly due to inactivity.

South Africa’s top 25:

1. Christiaan Bezuidenhout 64 (up 5)
2. Erik van Rooyen 76 (unchanged)
3. Thriston Lawrence 82 (up 8)
4. Shaun Norris 93 (up 19)
5. Aldrich Potgieter 127 (up 2)
6. Garrick Higgo 139 (down 1)
7. Daniel van Tonder 168 (down 1)
8. Jayden Schaper 175 (down 1)
9. Jacques Kruyswijk 193 (down 5)
10. Dean Burmester 196 (down 3)
11. Robin Williams 252 (down 4)
12. Brandon Stone 255 (down 3)
13. Christo Lamprecht 256 (down 3)
14. Dylan Naidoo 270 (down 1)
15. Barend Botha 327 (down 2)
16. Dylan Frittelli 328 (down 2)
17. Wilco Nienaber 352 (down 2)
18. Casey Jarvis 358 (up 1)
19. Louis Oosthuizen 362 (down 6)
20. Deon Germishuys 373 (down 1)
21. Jonathan Broomhead 384 (down 4)
22. Ryan van Velzen 385 (down 6)
23. Zander Lombard 397 (down 15)
24. Charl Schwartzel 403 (down 6)
25. Ian Snyman 447 (down 3)