While the Official World Golf Ranking continues to be ‘official’, it’s worth acknowledging noteworthy South African performances on that list: Daniel van Tonder’s 40-place climb this week was noteworthy.

Van Tonder finished in a share of fifth in the DP World Tour’s DS Automobiles Italian Open, and that reversed a long downward trend on the official world list which started from a career-high of 71^st. He had dropped to as low as 298^th last week.

Because the strength of play on the DP World Tour is now even further undervalued than it ever has been, the upward trend is a welcome move for Van Tonder who has a lot of work ahead of him if he is to regain a spot inside the official top 100 players in the world.

The Official World Golf Ranking paints a bleak picture of the current state of South African golf, with many of the best of our players playing in Europe or in LIV Golf. The few who have found a place on the PGA Tour are holding on: Christiaan Bezuidenhout remains the best-ranked of our players at 77^th in the world, down four places.

South Africa’s top 20:

1. Christiaan Bezuidenhout 77 (down 4)
2. Dean Burmester 85 (up 1)
3. Thriston Lawrence 97 (down 2)
4. Oliver Bekker 120 (unchanged)
5. Erik van Rooyen 142 (down 3)
6. Ockie Strydom 143 (down 2)
7. MJ Daffue 151 (up 1)
8. Louis Oosthuizen 163 (down 12)
9. Zander Lombard 175 (up 9)
10. Hennie du Plessis 185 (down 5)
11. Garrick Higgo 208 (down 6)
12. Shaun Norris 214 (down 11)
13. Dylan Frittelli 216 (down 5)
14. Charl Schwartzel 230 (down 12)
15. George Coetzee 252 (down 3)
16. Daniel van Tonder 258 (up 40)
17. Jaco Ahlers 262 (up 2)
18. Louis de Jager 265 (down 2)
19. JC Ritchie 266 (up 5)
20. Branden Grace 283 (down 17)