After starting the year ranked 1,207th on the Official World Golf Ranking list, Richard Sterne climbed 13 places this week into 243rd thanks to his share of 14th in the DP World Tour’s Genesis Championship in South Korea.

While that’s a lifetime away from his career-high of 29th on the official rankings, he has been consistently climbing since his last missed cut on the DP World Tour, in the Betfred British Masters back at the end of August. He slipped to 706th then, and, despite missing the cut in the Open de Espana, he has a share of third in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship to his name amongst a haul of three other top-20s.

With his DP World Tour card sewn up for next year, he enters the season ending Playoffs on the tour in the hope of pushing his ranking on the Race to Dubai above its current 69th as his injury-hit career has been given a jumpstart.

He wasn’t the biggest South African climber on the weekly update: Hennie du Plessis announced his return to health after a lengthy layoff for injury with his win on the Sunshine Tour in the Blu Label Unlimited Challenge at Gary Player Country Club in Sun City. He was up 901 places from 1,694th to 793rd, after starting the year in 432nd.

South Africa’s top-ranked golfer on the official list remained Thriston Lawrence, who was down four places to 65th. He stayed four places ahead of Aldrich Potgieter, who was also down four to 70th.

Players within the top 25 South Africans on the list who were up in the latest ranking are noted in bold below.

South Africa’s top 25:

1. Thriston Lawrence 65 (down 4)
2. Aldrich Potgieter 70 (down 4)
3. Christiaan Bezuidenhout 76 (down 7)
4. Garrick Higgo 79 (unchanged)
5. Erik van Rooyen 103 (down 4)
6. Shaun Norris 118 (down 3)
7. Christo Lamprecht 139 (up 1)
8. Jayden Schaper 156 (down 2)
9. JC Ritchie 160 (down 1)
10. Jacques Kruyswijk 163 (up 2)
11. Barend Botha 204 (up 2)
12. Daniel van Tonder 232 (down 4)
13. Richard Sterne 243 (up 13)
14. Brandon Stone 300 (down 9)
15. Jonathan Broomhead 316 (down 1)
16. Dean Burmester 333 (down 2)
17. Darren Fichardt 341 (up 3)
18. Dylan Naidoo 345 (down 3)
19. Robin Williams 353 (down 7)
20. Casey Jarvis 376 (up 2)
21. Michael Hollick 386 (down 2)
22. Pieter Moolman 456 (up 3)
23. Dylan Frittelli 468 (down 4)
24. Wilco Nienaber 483 (down 7)
25. Charl Schwartzel (up 22)