Louis Albertse will look back on his decision to play back home instead of the FedEx Open de France last week with some fondness as he jumped 194 places on the latest list issued by the Official World Golf Ranking.

“I was into the French Open but decided I was not going to go. Making that decision is not easy, it’s a big event, it’s a tough decision but it was the right one. It’s the perfect way to find my feet again,” said Albertse of his play-off win in the Sunshine Tour’s Sunbet Challenge hosted by Sun Sibaya at Umhlali Country Club.

It’s been a tough season in Europe on the DP World Tour for the man who is now a three-time winner on the Sunshine Tour, with just six cuts made after he played his way onto the international circuit via the Sunshine Tour’s Order of Merit.

His play-off triumph over Pieter Moolman saw him climb to 632nd on the rankings from 826th. He has some way to go to reach his career-high of 325th.

One man who is heading rapidly towards his career-high, however, is JC Ritchie, who was up a further 61 places this week to 15th after his victory in the HotelPlanner Tour’s Italian Challenge Open. He’s up to 156th, and his career-high was 111th.

For his third win of the season on the HotelPlanner Tour, he gains automatic promotion to the DP World Tour. He pulled off another haul of 4.00000 multi-win bonus ranking points for his second victory in two weeks. He was also up from 11th place to inside the top 10 in eighth place in the list of South Africa’s top 25 golfers according to the official rankings.

Other players who rose in the rankings are noted in bold in the list below.

South Africa’s top player remained Aldrich Potgieter, who was unchanged in 66th place, three ahead of Thriston Lawrence in 69th.

South Africa’s top 25:

1. Aldrich Potgieter 66 (unchanged)
2. Thriston Lawrence 69 (unchanged)
3. Christiaan Bezuidenhout 79 (down 2)
4. Erik van Rooyen 92 (down 1)
5. Shaun Norris 106 (up 1)
6. Garrick Higgo 138 (down 4)
7. Christo Lamprecht 146 (up 2)
8. JC Ritchie 156 (up 61)
9. Jacques Kruyswijk 180 (down 2)
10. Jayden Schaper 189 (up 17)
11. Daniel van Tonder 218 (down 7)
12. Brandon Stone 269 (down 4)
13. Dean Burmester 286 (down 10)
14. Barend Botha 288 (up 2)
15. Dylan Naidoo 319 (down 11)
16. Robin Williams 336 (down 36)
17. Darren Fichardt 337 (up 1)
18. Jonathan Broomhead 340 (down 8)
19. Michael Hollick 372 (down 5)
20. Casey Jarvis 374 (down 8)
21. Dylan Frittelli 437 (down 12)
22. Wilco Nienaber 455 (down 9)
23. Richard Sterne 479 (up 58)
24. Charl Schwartzel 487 (down 11)
25. Ryan van Velzen 504 (down 12)