Higgo back inside top 150 on world rankings

Aug 1, 2023 | Featured, Rankings

While the overall position of South African golfers in the Official World Golf Ranking continues to look bleak, Garrick Higgo’s return to form was rewarded with a climb back inside the world’s top 150 on this week’s list.

Higgo had a share of 13^th on the PGA Tour in last week’s 3M Open, and he moved up eight places on the rankings to 149^th. But almost every single one of South Africa’s top 20 players according to the list is down – even if, in many cases, it’s marginally – as the behemoth of the Official World Golf Ranking organisation continues its long-term undervaluing of performances of players anywhere outside the PGA Tour.

With South Africa’s top two players, Thriston Lawrence at 92^nd and Christiaan Bezuidenhout at 94^th, both in the 90s and sinking slowly, it seems entirely likely that in the absence of big points-bearing tournament appearances for both of them for the rest of the year now that the major championship season is done that South African could soon have exactly zero players inside the world’s top 100.

Higgo’s rise is something of a relief after he sank fairly deep below 200^th place – he was 216^th after the Valero Texas Open – but he is a long way off his best-ever ranking of 38^th. And while one could argue that 38^th was perhaps an inflated valuation of his ability at the point at which he won the Palmetto Championship in 2021, he is a world-class player on his day.

The unreliability of the official rankings is perhaps best-illustrated this week by the case of Louis Oosthuizen: After an 81-place boost from his performance in the Open Championship, he dropped 18 places this week to 331^st. And while his LIV Golf related exile from the official list is self-imposed, his position is entirely unreflective of his abilities – even in an environment of a much-curtailed schedule.

South Africa’s top 20: