Zander Lombard came second at the weekend in the DP World Tour’s Ras al Kaimah Championship and that translated into a 77-spot jump to 256^th on the latest Official World Golf Ranking list released on Tuesday.

Lombard reached a career-high of 190^th at the end 2019 after his share of 26^th in the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, and he’s not managed to scale those lofty heights since.  And his start to 2023 didn’t inspire much confidence as he missed cuts in the first two tournaments of the year.

But he came roaring back in the United Arab Emirates, and, but for a shaky last round, could have pulled off a victory. His current position puts him inside the top 20 golfers in South Africa on the world rankings list.

Others inside that top-20 list to climb included Garrick Higgo, who was up four places to 141^st, Charl Schwartzel in 174^th, who was up six places, George Coetzee who was up one to 228^th and Louis de Jager who climbed to 248^th from 251^st.

Dean Burmester dropped one spot, but remains South Africa’s top male golfer, ahead of Louis Oosthuizen, who is on a mini-campaign on the Asian Tour to get his rankings up ahead of the start of the LIV Golf season, for which there are currently no ranking points.

South Africa’s top 20

1. Dean Burmester 59 (down 1)
2. Louis Oosthuizen 65 (down 2)
3. Christiaan Bezuidenhout 73 (down 4)
4. Thriston Lawrence 77 (down 3)
5. Erik van Rooyen 111 (down 5)
6. Oliver Bekker 113 (down 2)
7. Garrick Higgo 141 (up 4)
8. Shaun Norris 147 (down 5)
9. MJ Daffue 158 (down 5)
10. Charl Schwartzel 174 (up 6)
11. Dylan Frittelli 196 (down 7)
12. Hennie du Plessis 197 (down 1)
13. Justin Harding 199 (down 12)
14. Branden Grace 208 (unchanged)
15. George Coetzee 228 (up 1)
16. JC Ritchie 240 (down 9)
17. Louis de Jager 248 (up 3)
18. Ockie Strydom 253 (down 3)
19. Zander Lombard 256 (up 77)
20. Daniel van Tonder 263 (down 5)