Aldrich Potgieter underlined the rise of the new generation of South African golf talent with his PGA Tour win at the weekend, and that was confirmed by his rise into the world’s top 50 of the latest Official World Golf Ranking.
It was a big 74-place jump up the official list for the 20-year-old, and, at 49th, he also became South Africa’s top-ranked player as he leapfrogged Erik van Rooyen, Thriston Lawrence, and the previous number one, Christiaan Bezuidenhout.
With Lawrence also climbing six places from his share of eighth in the Rocket Classic won by Potgieter, the change at the top is becoming more noticeable. Of course, Lawrence is older and more experienced than Potgieter, and he has been South Africa’s top-ranked player on the official lists before. But his finding form on the PGA Tour bodes well for the rest of the year for Lawrence, and he could soon get inside the world’s top 50 with some more solid performances.
Jayden Schaper also continued his rise up the rankings. He was up by seven spots to 168th after another top-10 on the DP World Tour last week, and he moved above locally-based Daniel van Tonder on the world rankings to become South Africa’s seventh-best player on the OWGR.
South Africa’s top 25:
- Aldrich Potgieter 49 (up 74)
- Christiaan Bezuidenhout 67 (down 2)
- Thriston Lawrence 77 (up 6)
- Erik van Rooyen 80 (down 2)
- Shaun Norris 94 (down 2)
- Garrick Higgo 142 (down 4)
- Jayden Schaper 168 (up 7)
- Daniel van Tonder 176 (down 6)
- Jacques Kruyswijk 195 (down 4)
- Dean Burmester 206 (down 9)
- Christo Lamprecht 260 (down 5)
- Robin Williams 265 (down 9)
- Brandon Stone 266 (down 8)
- Dylan Naidoo 279 (down 4)
- Barend Botha 336 (down 5)
- Dylan Frittelli 339 (down 4)
- Wilco Nienaber 363 (down 6)
- Casey Jarvis 373 (down 9)
- Louis Oosthuizen 380 (down 12)
- Deon Germishuys 388 (down 11)
- Jonathan Broomhead 392 (down 6)
- Ryan van Velzen 396 (down 8)
- Charl Schwartzel 410 (down 7)
- Zander Lombard 415 (down 17)
- Ian Snyman 456 (down 5)
