Christiaan Bezuidenhout finished in a share of 16^th in the Olympic golf tournament, and while he might have been out of the medals, the performance gave him a small boost in the latest Official World Golf Ranking.

He climbed two spots to 44^th as he remained the third-best South African golfer on the list, behind Louis Oosthuizen and Garrick Higgo who were unchanged in eighth and 41^st respectively. Oosthuizen didn’t play in the Olympics, and Higgo finished in a share of 53^rd.

South Africa had nine golfers in the world’s top 100, with Erik van Rooyen the 10^th-best South African in 113rd, down three spots.

The best performance by a South African came from Justin Harding, whose share of seventh in the European Tour’s ISPS HANDA World Invitational in Northern Ireland saw him climb six spots to 88^th – just a week after he regained a place inside the world’s top 100 with his runner-up spot in Wales the week before. Harding is currently the seventh-ranked South African.

As the schedules on the European Tour and PGA Tour normalise again after the Olympics – although the PGA Tour is now heading towards its own conclusion with the FedEx Cup heading for a climax – some of South Africa’s top players will get a chance to cement their positions ahead of the end of the calendar year. Branden Grace, who is currently 65^th, and Van Rooyen are in action in the Barracuda Championship on the PGA Tour, and Daniel van Tonder in 91^st, starts in the Hero Open in Scotland on the European Tour.

South Africa’s top 10:

1. Louis Oosthuizen 8 (unchanged)
2. Garrick Higgo 41 (unchanged)
3. Christiaan Bezuidenhout 44 (up 2)
4. Branden Grace 65 (down 1)
5. Charl Schwartzel 75 (down 1)
6. Dylan Frittelli 81 (down 1)
7. Justin Harding 88 (up 6)
8. Daniel van Tonder 91 (down 3)
9. Dean Burmester 98 (down 2)
10. Erik van Rooyen 113 (down 3)