Thriston Lawrence won his first Official World Golf Ranking points since his share of 45th in the Open Championship with his victory on the DP World Tour last weekend to head back towards his previous position as the highest-ranked South African golfer.

His superb victory in the Omega European Masters was not only confirmation of his true abilities after a disheartening season on the PGA Tour, it was also his second-best performance on the official lists since his fourth-place finish in the Open last year.

He earned 25.65002 points at Crans-sur-Sierre and climbed 26 places on the rankings to 68th. That put him just three spots behind South Africa’s current top-ranked player, Aldrich Potgieter, who was up two places to 65th.

As well as regaining confidence in his own abilities, the victory in Switzerland should serve as a springboard in the next two weeks – and, it’s to be hoped, beyond – as he plays in the Amgen Irish Open and the BMW PGA Championship in the kind of golfing environment in which clearly thrives.

Beyond the personal benefits Lawrence clearly gets from playing in Europe, his win lays bare the difficulties of carving a niche for oneself on the PGA Tour presents, as well as the inequities of the Official World Golf Ranking system. There is very clear overvaluing of PGA Tour events, but, worse, terrible undervaluing of the level of golf played on the DP World Tour – and elsewhere.

The unequal valuation of the level of play in the United States and in Europe is also shown by a purportedly ‘neutral’ rankings outfit, The Universal Golf Rankings (tugr.org/rankings). That outfit also inflates the importance of PGA Tour events at the expense of other tours, and particularly the DP World Tour, by assigning a level of importance to historical rankings which have always exaggerated the PGA Tour’s strength. So Lawrence is currently ranked 181st by TUGR, in a patently inadequate assessment of his true position amongst other players in the world.

Additionally, TUGR, which has at least some of its genesis in trying to evaluate LIV players in the broad context of tours around the world, hopelessly overvalues the strength of the LIV environment.

Lawrence is some way off his career-high official ranking of 45th, but a few more good weeks will steer him further in the right direction. It may also influence him in making a choice to devote more attention in the future to playing in an environment that rewards his abilities.

South Africa’s top 25:

1. Aldrich Potgieter 65 (up 2)
2. Thriston Lawrence 68 (up 26)
3. Christiaan Bezuidenhout 75 (down 3)
4. Erik van Rooyen 90 (down 1)
5. Shaun Norris 115 (down 1)
6. Christo Lamprecht 143 (up 1)
7. Garrick Higgo 147 (down 1)
8. Jacques Kruyswijk 172 (down 2)
9. Jayden Schaper 195 (down 3)
10. Daniel van Tonder 201 (down 5)
11. Dean Burmester 253 (down 4)
12. Brandon Stone 263 (up 2)
13. Barend Botha 277 (down 1)
14. Robin Williams 289 (down 11)
15. Jonathan Broomhead 311 (unchanged)
16. Dylan Naidoo 315 (down 6)
17. JC Ritchie 329 (down 3)
18. Michael Hollick 389 (down 8)
19. Dylan Frittelli 396 (down 8)
20. Casey Jarvis 397 (down 4)
21. Wilco Nienaber 430 (down 8)
22. Charl Schwartzel 457 (down 9)
23. Ryan van Velzen 471 (down 7)
24. Deon Germishuys 492 (down 9)
25. Darren Fichardt 496 (down 9)