Thriston Lawrence’s victory on the DP World Tour at the weekend has made him South Africa’s Top-ranked player according to the latest Official World Golf Ranking list published on Monday.

Lawrence edged out Joost Luiten of the Netherlands in the BMW International Open in Germany for his fourth DP World Tour title, and that saw him climb 29 places on the rankings to 75^th.

That took him past Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who slipped five places to 85^th, and who has been the leading South African on the list since March 13. Bezuidenhout inherited his position as Louis Oosthuizen and Dean Burmester continued a slide down the rankings thanks to their joining of LIV Golf. Burmester is heading down and out of the top 100, and Oosthuizen has slipped to 327^th.

Lawrence is heading back towards his career-high of 63^rd which he achieved after he won the Investec South African Open Championship in December. He was on a slow downward trend after that, with seven missed cuts not helping his cause. His victory at the weekend was especially sweet after his missed cut in the US Open.

All of South Africa’s other leading players were down in the rankings, and, with 74 players in the world’s top 1,000, the resumption of the Sunshine Tour 2023-24 season can’t come quickly enough.

South Africa’s top 20:

1. Thriston Lawrence 75 (up 29)
2. Christiaan Bezuidenhout 85 (down 5)
3. Dean Burmester 97 (down 4)
4. Oliver Bekker 143 (down 2)
5. Ockie Strydom 154 (down 8)
6. Erik van Rooyen 172 (down 5)
7. MJ Daffue 173 (down 2)
8. Garrick Higgo 187 (down 4)
9. Zander Lombard 200 (down 10)
10. Hennie du Plessis 217 (down 11)
11. Deon Germishuys 241 (down 7)
12. Dylan Frittelli 254 (down 7)
13. Shaun Norris 266 (down 10)
14. Louis de Jager 274 (down 5)
15. George Coetzee 286 (down 4)
16. Charl Schwartzel 290 (down 9)
17. Jaco Ahlers 294 (down 5)
18. Daniel van Tonder 299 (down 4)
19. Casey Jarvis 303 (down 2)
20. JC Ritchie 307 (unchanged)