Jarvis the big jumper on world rankings

Apr 24, 2023 | Featured, Rankings

He might not be one of South Africa’s top 20 players yet according to the latest Official World Golf Ranking, but Casey Jarvis is certainly heading in an upward direction on that list after a superb rookie season on the Sunshine Tour.

Jarvis had his fourth runner-up finish of his first season as a professional on Sunday in the Sunshine Tour’s Tour Championship, and, in the process, climbed inside the top 400 in the world, according to the official list. He climbed 40 places from 433^rd to 393^rd.

It has been an impressive start to a career which began when he turned professional in August last year. When he pulled off his first runner-up performance in the PGA Championship at St Francis Links, he broke in to the top 100 players in the world as he climbed to 879^th. Since then, it has been a steady climb, punctuated by only three missed cuts – at the Investec South African Open Championship, the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the Jonsson Workwear Open – which slowed him down.

Jaco Ahlers, who won the Sunshine Tour’s Tour Championship, was up 26 places and got back inside the list of South Africa’s top 20 players. There were minor adjustments to the positions of the other players on that list, and, just outside the top 20, Deon Germishuys’s performance on the DP World Tour where he came ninth in the ISPS Handa-Championship in Japan, has lifted him 23 places to 280^th, and he now outranks Daniel van Tonder, who is at 290^th.

South Africa’s top-ranked player remains Christiaan Bezuidenhout at 72^nd.

South Africa’s top 20: