Ritchie rises in world rankings with top-10 finish in the US

Jul 24, 2023 | Featured, Rankings

There was a nice boost for JC Ritchie after a short two-tournament campaign on the PGA Tour when he climbed 31 places on the latest Official World Golf Ranking list which was released on Monday.

Ritchie was one of a number of South Africans who benefitted from the PGA Tour’s co-sanctioning with the DP World Tour of the Genesis Scottish Open, and then the playing of the Open Championship. The upshot of that was a lot of places became available for DP World Tour players in the last two PGA Tour events.

Ritchie finished in a share of 10^th in last week’s Barracuda Championship to climb to 283^rd on the latest rankings. He is back inside the world’s top 300 after slipping as low as 317^th from a career-high of 111^th back in 2019.

Also getting a nice boost from his performance in the Barracuda Championship was Erik van Rooyen, who was up 20 places to 195^th, back inside the world’s top 200.

From the Open Championship, Louis Oosthuizen climbed 81 places to 313^th and is back inside South Africa’s top 20 – but still a long way off what would probably be inside the top 50 in the world were it not for his jump to LIV Golf and the attendant loss of ranking points that has occasioned.

Charl Schwartzel, another player who is on the LIV Golf circuit, has now fallen out of South Africa’s top 20, after he dropped 16 places to 338^th with his missed cut at the Open.

Outside South Africa’s top 20, Brandon Stone went up 17 places to 450^th with his top-10 on the Challenge Tour and CJ du Plessis climbed 103 places to 739^th after his win on the Sunshine Tour.

South Africa’s top 20: