Richard Sterne was the big South African winner on the latest list issued by the Official World Golf Ranking after his share of third in last week’s DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

Sterne bounced up 219 places to 258th on the official list, well up from the 1207th where he started the year.

Sterne has been ranked as high as 29th – that was back in 2007 – but his career has been badly hamstrung by injury, and he has lost many good years to that hip problem. The search for a solution appears to have begun to pay off as he had had four top 20 finishes over the last eight weeks on the DP World Tour.

Sterne’s climb was the biggest by a South African. Louis Oosthuizen was up 129 places for his good finish in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, but his climb of 129 places to 476th is affected by his descent down the rankings after he moved to LIV Golf.

Garrick Higgo was runner-up in the Sanderson Farms Championship on the PGA Tour, and that boosted him 41 places up the rankings to 96th. He’s back inside the world’s top 100, and, although he’s some way off his best-ever of 38th, he seems to be heading back to the kind of form which made him a top-50 player.

It was a good week for South African players: Inside the list of the top 25 players from this country, nine players went up. Herman Loubser was one of those, and he climbed into the top 25 when he rose 33 places to 491st, a career-high. Barend Botha also had a good boost up the list, up 19 places to his career high of 268th.

All players who climbed are noted in bold on the list below.

Aldrich Potgieter remains South Africa’s top-ranked golfer, and he was up one place to 65th.

South Africa’s top 25:

1. Aldrich Potgieter 65 (up 1)
2. Thriston Lawrence 68 (unchanged)
3. Christiaan Bezuidenhout 69 (up 12)
4. Garrick Higgo 96 (up 41)
5. Erik van Rooyen 97 (down 5)
6. Shaun Norris 109 (down 4)
7. Christo Lamprecht 142 (up 3)
8. Jacques Kruyswijk 160 (down 2)
9. JC Ritchie 161 (down 6)
10. Jayden Schaper 196 (down 5)
11. Daniel van Tonder 225 (down 8)
12. Richard Sterne 258 (up 219)
13. Barend Botha 268 (up 19)
14. Brandon Stone 276 (down 4)
15. Dean Burmester 309 (down 16)
16. Dylan Naidoo 326 (down 4)
17. Jonathan Broomhead 328 (up 15)
18. Darren Fichardt 340 (down 1)
19. Robin Williams 348 (down 6)
20. Michael Hollick 382 (down 5)
21. Casey Jarvis 387 (down 9)
22. Dylan Frittelli 461 (down 15)
23. Wilco Nienaber 471 (down 11)
24. Louis Oosthuizen 476 (up 129)
25. Herman Loubser 491 (up 33)