Higgo starts climbing back on world rankings

Jan 23, 2023 | Featured, Rankings

Garrick Higgo arrested an increasingly precipitous slide down the list of the Official World Golf Ranking with his share of 11^th in last week’s American Express tournament on the PGA Tour.

The left-handed young star from Stellenbosch, who has wins on the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the Sunshine Tour to his name, carded a closing nine-under-par 63 in the tournament in La Quinta, California, and that was enough to see him climb 23 places on the world list to 144^th.

Higgo, who had reached as high as 38^th in the middle of 2021, had been going through a difficult patch with his game, and his last world ranking points came from a share of 29^th in the Butterfield Bermuda Championship on the PGA Tour at the end of October last year.

It was his first event of 2023 after he spent some time back home from the United States in an attempt to rediscover his mojo. That seems to have happened for him, if his closing round at the weekend and his generally consistent play during the tournament were any indication.

Also climbing well as his own return to golf from an injury-enforced time away unfolds was Erik van Rooyen. He closed the American Express with a superb 10-under 62 to finish in a share of sixth. That saw him climb 21 places on the world rankings list to just outside the top 100 in 105^th.

Although Dean Burmester slipped two places to 58^th after finishing in a share of 54^th in the American Express, he is hot on the heels of South Africa’s top-ranked golfer, Louis Oosthuizen. Oosthuizen id dropping down the rankings because of his position in LIV Golf, and the slide downwards will continue as long as the breakaway circuit is unable to offer world ranking points.

South Africa’s top 20