Christiaan Bezuidenhout’s solid performance in last week’s Players Championship on the PGA Tour saw him jump 13 places this week on the Official World Golf Ranking list to 68^th place.

That makes him South Africa’s highest-ranked golfer after Dean Burmester, who has jumped ship to LIV Golf, slipped two more places to 71^st. Bezuidenhout is still some way off his career high of 33^rd, but he is trending in the right direction after a tournament in which he displayed how good he can be.

Louis Oosthuizen was South Africa’s highest-ranked player for a long while, but he too continues his downward slide induced by his defection to LIV Golf. He’s 100^th this week.

George Coetzee got a good bump from his third-place finish on home soil in the Mediclinic Invitational. He climbed eight places to 234^th. The winner of that tournament, Stefan Wears-Taylor, climbed 88 places to 587^th. That makes him number 41 in South Africa according to the rankings.

South Africa’s top 20:

1. Christiaan Bezuidenhout 68 (up 13)
2. Dean Burmester 71 (down 2)
3. Thriston Lawrence 85 (down 1)
4. Louis Oosthuizen 100 (down 10)
5. Oliver Bekker 113 (down 3)
6. Erik van Rooyen 121 (unchanged)
7. Ockie Strydom 145 (unchanged)
8. MJ Daffue 161 (down 2)
9. Dylan Frittelli 172 (down 5)
10. Shaun Norris 173 (down 2)
11. Garrick Higgo 185 (down 9)
12. Charl Schwartzel 197 (down 6)
13. Hennie du Plessis 216 (down 3)
14. Branden Grace 221 (down 2)
15. George Coetzee 234 (up 8)
16. Zander Lombard 235 (unchanged)
17. Justin Harding 242 (down 16)
18. JC Ritchie 245 (up 9)
19. Louis de Jager 259 (down 1)
20. Daniel van Tonder 279 (up 3)