Thriston Lawrence is still South Africa’s top golfer according to the latest weekly release of the Official World Golf Ranking, but it looks almost inevitable that he will slip out of the world’s top 100 shortly.

Lawrence, who is on the inexplicably long summer break of the DP World Tour, will only get back into action next week in the D+D Real Czech Masters, and at 95^th on the list this week, down three places. He will be looking for a strong finish to the year to get back towards his career-high ranking of 63^rd soon after he won the Investec South African Open Championship back in early December last year.

A similar fate is also like to befall Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who, at 98^th and down two places, is not in action in the season-ending FedEx Cup Playoffs on the PGA Tour.

On the list of South Africa’s top 20 players, only Hennie du Plessis is up in a technical improvement to 225^th.

In a year in which the rankings’ validity has been increasingly questioned, the new system has been nothing but a bloodletting for South Africa’s top players who are not playing on the PGA Tour.

South Africa’s top 20:

1. Thriston Lawrence 95 (down 3)
2. Christiaan Bezuidenhout 98 (down 2)
3. Dean Burmester 117 (down 7)
4. Garrick Higgo 153 (unchanged)
5. MJ Daffue 167 (down 2)
6. Ockie Strydom 181 (unchanged)
7. Oliver Bekker 184 (unchanged)
8. Erik van Rooyen 220 (down 5)
9. Hennie du Plessis 225 (up 3)
10. Zander Lombard 234 (down 5)
11. Casey Jarvis 249 (down 5)
12. Deon Germishuys 268 (down 2)
13. Dylan Frittelli 303 (down 6)
14. JC Ritchie 304 (down 8)
15. Louis de Jager 310 (down 6)
16. George Coetzee 315 (down 1)
17. Daniel van Tonder 330 (down 4)
18. Jaco Ahlers 339 (up 5)
19. Louis Oosthuizen 343 (down 9)
20. Shaun Norris 349 (down 13)