Nicole Garcia jumped inside the world’s top 200 on the latest Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings with her third-place finish at the weekend on the Ladies European Tour.

It was a 51-place leap for Garcia, and, in the process, she became the third-best South African according to the official list, supplanting Lee-Anne Pace. Garcia was up to 179^th, and Pace was down 10 spots to 186^th.

It’s been a steady upward trend for Garcia, who has been ranked as low as 243^rd this year. She got inside the top 200 with her share of 11^th in the Aramco Team Series-Singapore in March when she rose to 192^nd, and her love affair with that series continued in London last week.

Everyone else on the list of South Africa’s top 10 players was down, and the leading local player remains Ashleigh Buhai. She was down one spot to 17^th, and Paula is the second-ranked South African at 83^rd, down one place.

South Africa’s top 10:

1. Ashleigh Buhai 17 (down 1)
2. Paula Reto 83 (down 1)
3. Nicole Garcia 179 (up 51)
4. Lee-Anne Pace 186 (down 10)
5. Casandra Alexander 280 (down 2)
6. Kaleigh Telfer 542 (down 12)
7. Stacy Bregman 627 (down 2)
8. Nadia van der Westhuizen 733 (down 6)
9. Kiera Floyd 739 (down 4)
10. Bonita Bredenhann 958 (down 5)