Ryan van Velzen might have missed out on a win in the Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open, but his second-place finish saw him jump inside the world’s top 300 on the latest release of the Official World Golf Ranking.

His 47-place climb to 296^th is the latest in a fruitful period for the 23-year-old who is a three-time winner on the Sunshine Tour, and appears headed to finish the season at the top of the Order of Merit. Dean Burmester and Louis Oosthuizen are above him on that list, but they will not have played the requisite seven tournaments to qualify for ranking at the end of the season.

It’s a career-high for Van Velzen, and, in the process, he has vaulted to 14^th on the list of top-ranked South Africans from 19^th last week. His performance at Royal Cape over the weekend was also his second-best ever on the world rankings list, topped only by his share of second in last December’s share of second in the Investec South African Open Championship.

If, as looks possible every time he tees it up at the moment, he pulls off another victory, he will qualify for the second time in recent months for a multi-win bonus, as he did when he took the Mediclinic Invitational at the end of January. That will catapult him even further up the world rankings.

Aldrich Potgieter also got a nice boost up the rankings list with an 11-place climb for his performance on the Korn Ferry Tour where he came 20^th in the Astara Golf Championship. He started the year in 1,274^th, and is now ranked 341^st. He’s inside South Africa’s top 20 too.

South Africa’s top golfer remains Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who was unchanged in 57^th place after his share of 28^th in the chaotic WM Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour.

South Africa’s top 25:

1. Christiaan Bezuidenhout 57 (unchanged)
2. Thriston Lawrence 86 (down 5)
3. Erik van Rooyen 87 (down 8)
4. Dean Burmester 94 (unchanged)
5. Zander Lombard 100 (unchanged)
6. Louis Oosthuizen 136 (down 3)
7. Garrick Higgo 187 (up 6)
8. Dylan Frittelli 197 (down 6)
9. Hennie du Plessis 214 (up 1)
10. Ockie Strydom 237 (down 7)
11. Louis de Jager 260 (up 1)
12. MJ Daffue 279 (down 7)
13. Jayden Schaper 286 (up 4)
14. Ryan van Velzen 296 (up 47)
15. Casey Jarvis 310 (down 6)
16. Jaco Ahlers 313 (down 3)
17. Jacques Kruyswijk 320 (up 10)
18. Charl Schwartzel 325 (down 9)
19. Darren Fichardt 334 (down 10)
20. Aldrich Potgieter 341 (up 11)
21. Deon Germishuys 359 (down 8)
22. Wilco Nienaber 388 (down 5)
23. Oliver Bekker 394 (down 5)
24. Brandon Stone 411 (down 2)
25. Jbe’ Kruger 414 (down 2)