Shaun Norris was the big climber in the world rankings this week as his victory at the weekend in the Steyn City Championship saw him up 23 places to 62^nd on the latest Official World Golf Ranking list.

Norris, who has been ranked as high as 54^th after his third-place finish in the 2020 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, finished 2021 ranked 73^rd but had slipped to 85^th after the previous week’s tournament co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour and the Sunshine Tour, the MyGolfLife Open.

The man who finished runner-up to Norris, Dean Burmester, was also a big climber on the list, reaching 64^th, which is 12 spots higher than he was last week. That’s a career-high for Burmester after he reached 66^th after last year’s South African Open Championship.

Both Norris and Burmester are chasing spots in the major championships, the first of which is the Masters on April 7. They can get into that field if they are amongst the top 50 players not already qualified on the Official World Golf Ranking published during the week prior to the tournament. If they’re able to pull that off, they will join Christiaan Bezuidenhout, ranked 58^th this week, Garrick Higgo (82^nd), Louis Oosthuizen (14^th), Erik van Rooyen (61^st), as well as former champion Charl Schwartzel representing South Africa.

There were other good showings on the latest list below the top 10 South Africans. Most noteworthy were Oliver Bekker who moved ever-closer to the world’s top 100, climbing 17 places to 117^th, and Thriston Lawrence who got inside the world’s top 150, improving 10 places to 149^th.

South Africa’s top 10

1. Louis Oosthuizen (14 – down 1)
2. Christiaan Bezuidenhout (58 – down 5)
3. Erik van Rooyen (61 – down 2)
4. Shaun Norris (62 – up 23)
5. Dean Burmester (64 – up 12)
6. Garrick Higgo (82 – down 1)
7. Daniel van Tonder (88 – unchanged)
8. Branden Grace (92 – unchanged)
9. Justin Harding (97 – unchanged)
10. Dylan Frittelli (116 – down 3)