Kruger jumps 31 places on world golf rankings after good Asian week

Mar 19, 2024 | Featured, Features, Rankings

Jbe’ Kruger might not have won over the weekend, but he was the biggest South African winner on the latest Official World Golf Ranking list released this week as he climbed 31 places after his share of 10^th in Macau on the Asian Tour.

Kruger was up into 363^rd, and is ranked the 22^nd-best player in South Africa according to the rankings. He’s a long way off his career-high of 109^th, which he reached after winning the Avantha Masters in India back in 2012. He’s also edging closer to the 350^th-position he reached when he won the Shigeo Nagashima Invitational Sega Sammy Cup in Japan last year.

There was only a handful of South African men in action last week, and most players on the list who rose in the rankings did so through adjustments in position due to performances above or below them: Dylan Frittelli, Casey Jarvis, Jacques Kruyswik and Robin Williams all got small boosts up the lists.

One exception was Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who reclaimed top spot amongst South Africans on the list with his share of 13^th in the Players Championship over the weekend. He climbed two places to 59^th, supplanting Erik van Rooyen as South Africa’s number one player after Van Rooyen missed the cut and slipped one place to 60^th.

And, from having five players in the world’s top 100 last week, South Africa now has three: Thriston Lawrence is still in that group, but down four places this week to 82^nd, while Zander Lombard was down three to 102^nd, and LIV Golf’s Dean Burmester was down four to 104^th.

South Africa’s top 25: