Darren Fichardt is carving out a pair of competitive spaces for himself late in his career, and his position on the latest Official World Golf Ranking list issued this week shows that as he jumped 165 places.

Fichardt, 50, might be some way off his career-high ranking of 75th, but he finished in a share of fifth at the weekend, ahead of world number two Rory McIlroy and of all other South African in the field in the DP World Tour’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. That lifted him into 338th on the official ranking list, and made him South Africa’s 18th-best golfer according to those rankings.

In the process, he has taken a big step towards retaining his DP World Tour card for next year, after he climbed 54 places to 93rd on the Race to Dubai rankings. All this is while remaining a force to be reckoned with on the Legends Tour. He is currently in 10th place on the Order of Merit after playing just six of 13 events on that circuit.

As impressive as that performance was, he was far from South Africa’s biggest climber on the official rankings: Haydn Porteous, for winning his first tournament in over eight years – on an invitation in his first full Sunshine Tour event of the 2025-26 season – jumped to 845th on the list, up 855 places from his 1700th last week. That’s nowhere near the 166th he reached with his share of 19th in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic back in 2018, but he will be hoping it signifies a return to the kind of form which made him a two-time DP World Tour winner.

Also getting a substantial boost last week was JC Ritchie, who won the Open de Portugal on the HotelPlanner Tour. Because it was his second victory of the year, he also got a multi-win bonus of 4.00000 points, and he rose to 217th on the list, up 112 places.

South Africa’s top-ranked golfer remains Aldrich Potgieter, down two places this week in 66th. He remained two spots clear of Thriston Lawrence, who was also down two in 69th.

South Africa’s top 25:

1. Aldrich Potgieter 66 (down 2)
2. Thriston Lawrence 69 (down 2)
3. Christiaan Bezuidenhout 77 (down 3)
4. Erik van Rooyen 91 (down 1)
5. Shaun Norris 107 (down 2)
6. Garrick Higgo 134 (up 16)
7. Christo Lamprecht 148 (down 4)
8. Jacques Kruyswijk 178 (down 5)
9. Jayden Schaper 206 (down 5)
10. Daniel van Tonder 211 (down 7)
11. JC Ritchie 217 (up 112)
12. Brandon Stone 265 (up 3)
13. Dean Burmester 276 (down 15)
14. Barend Botha 290 (down 12)
15. Robin Williams 300 (down 10)
16. Dylan Naidoo 308 (up 8)
17. Jonathan Broomhead 332 (down 9)
18. Darren Fichardt 338 (up 165)
19. Casey Jarvis 366 (up 4)
20. Michael Hollick 367 (down 4)
21. Dylan Frittelli 425 (down 17)
22. Wilco Nienaber 446 (down 10)
23. Charl Schwartzel 476 (down 8)
24. Ryan van Velzen 492 (down 10)
25. Deon Germishuys 505 (down 8)