Wilco Nienaber’s share of second last week in the Challenge Tour’s Abu Dhabi Challenge saw him start an upward climb back up the Official World Golf Ranking list released on Monday.

Nienaber was up 37 places to 383^rd, and while that’s a lot better than last week’s 420^th, it’s also a long way off his career-high of 131^st which he achieved back in mid-2021. Since then, it’s been a downward trend as he has battled to maintain the high level at which his professional career started. His performance in the Middle East was his best in some time, with all his rounds in the 60s, and he was in with a genuine chance at the win until an eagle at the last by Portugal’s Ricardo Gouveia denied him.

For the players ranked inside South Africa’s top 20 according to the world list, it was a dismal week as only two players climbed: Oliver Bekker was up one and Hennie du Plessis was up four in what was essentially a technical adjustment as neither was in action.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout remains South Africa’s top player at 73^rd, but the absence of South Africans in the top 20 is as glaring as it has ever been with the ‘LIV effect’ causing the man who was our best player for many years, Louis Oosthuizen, dropping outside the top 150 in the world.

South Africa’s top 20:

1. Christiaan Bezuidenhout 73 (down 1)
2. Dean Burmester 86 (down 2)
3. Thriston Lawrence 95 (down 2)
4. Oliver Bekker 120 (up 1)
5. Erik van Rooyen 139 (down 9)
6. Ockie Strydom 141 (down 2)
7. Louis Oosthuizen 151 (down 9)
8. MJ Daffue 152 (down 4)
9. Zander Lombard 186 (down 4)
10. Hennie du Plessis 180 (up 5)
11. Shaun Norris 203 (down 9)
12. Garrick Higgo 202 (down 5)
13. Dylan Frittelli 211 (down 4)
14. Charl Schwartzel 218 (down 9)
15. George Coetzee 249 (down 7)
16. Louis de Jager 263 (down 7)
17. Branden Grace 266 (down 11)
18. Jaco Ahlers 264 (down 2)
19. JC Ritchie 271 (down 10)
20. Justin Harding 282 (down 5)