He reversed a recent slight downward trend in his world rankings, and JC Ritchie climbed to 155^th on the latest Official World Golf Ranking after his share of seventh in last week’s SDC Open at Zebula Golf Estate and Spa.

Ritchie had climbed to a career-high of 147^th after his successive wins in the Cape Town Open and the Jonsson Workwear Open, and his share of 14^th in the Mangaung Open. A share of 23^rd in the MyGolfLife Open at Pecanwood, and a missed cut at the Steyn City Championship saw him slide to 159^th before his performance last week reversed that downward trend.

His position makes him the 13^th-ranked South African player behind the man who is still at the top of the local list, Louis Oosthuizen. Oosthuizen slipped one position to 15^th on the list after his elimination in the group stages of the World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play at the weekend.

The other two South Africans in that field, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Erik van Rooyen, also slipped slightly in the rankings after they, too, were eliminated after the group stages. Bezuidenhout dropped three places to 61^st and Van Rooyen one to 62^nd.

The other South African who reversed a downward trend – this one much longer than Ritchie’s – was Wilco Nienaber. Although he had a tough closing round in the DP World Tour’s Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, he still climbed 14 places to 235^th. He reached a career-high of 131^st after his 2021 Dimension Data Pro-Am victory, but he had slipped as low as 252^nd after missing the cut at Pecanwood.

South Africa’s top 10

1. Louis Oosthuizen (15 – down 1)
2. Christiaan Bezuidenhout (61 – down 3)
3. Erik van Rooyen (62 – down 1)
4. Shaun Norris (63 – down 1)
5. Dean Burmester (65 – down 1)
6. Garrick Higgo (82 – unchanged)
7. Daniel van Tonder (91 – down 3)
8. Branden Grace (94 – down 2)
9. Justin Harding (96 – up 1)
10. Dylan Frittelli (119 – down 3)