Botha’s PGA Championship showing gives him career-high spot on rankings

Nov 26, 2024 | Featured, Features, Rankings

Barend Botha reached a career-high of 308^th on the latest Official World Golf Ranking list after his second-place finish in the South African PGA Championship at St Francis Links over the weekend.

The climb saw him leapfrog Jayden Schaper and Casey Jarvis on the list of South Africa’s top 25 golfers according to the official rankings, and he is currently 11^th on that list. Garrick Higgo, who climbed one spot to 288^th after his 53^rd-place finish in the RSM Classic on the PGA Tour, is the 10^th-ranked South African.

Botha burst on to the rankings scene with a pair of wins in consecutive weeks on the PGA Tour Americas at the end of July and the beginning of August after his time at the Universtiy of Toledo in the United States. Those victories got him status on the Korn Ferry Tour for next year, and he has returned home to play some Sunshine Tour events.

A week before his second place in St Francis Links, he pulled off a share of sixth in the Vodacom Origjns of Golf Final at Oubaai, which alerted the South African public to his potential and set off his current rise up the rankings.

Another young player, Aldrich Potgieter, who has graduated from the Korn Ferry Tour to the PGA Tour for next year, made a visit to Australia where he played in the opening DP World Tour event, the BMW Australian PGA Championship. His share of eighth saw him climb 21 places to 328^th which is approaching his career-high of 308^th.

These were the big climbers outside the SA top 25 after the PGA Championship: Champion Pieter Moolman went up 111 places from 674 to 563; Trevor Fisher Jnr went up 135 places from 1,143 to 1,008; and JJ Senekal went up 58 places from 971 to 913.

Meanwhile, Christo Lamprecht went up another 39 places from 817 to 778 after the RSM Classic on the PGA Tour.

South Africa’s top player remains Thriston Lawrence, who went down one place to 48^th.

South Africa’s top 25: