While fans were watching the action at the tops of leaderboards in tournaments in South Africa, the United States, Spain and Japan last week, Oliver Bekker quietly improved his Official World Golf Ranking position to become South Africa’s 10th highest-ranked golfer.
Bekker, who finished in a share of 10th in the DP World Tour’s ISPS Handa Championship in Spain, edged ever closer to the top 100 in the world, climbing six places to 112th. It’s a career-high for the 37-year-old from Pretoria, and reward for a season which now boasts five top-10 finishes in eight starts on the DP World Tour after he played his way onto that circuit through the Challenge Tour last year.
He started the year ranked 159th, and has climbed in the rankings slowly and steadily, despite missing the cut in the first tournament of the year, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. He missed just one other cut, in the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters. Besides those two hiccups, his worst performance was a share of 11th in the MyGolfLife Open at Pecanwood.
There was also a substantial improvement for the man who finished in a share of third in Spain, Hennie du Plessis. He moved inside the world’s top 150 to 146th, a climb of 35 places. That makes him the 13th-ranked South African on the list.
Jaco Ahlers, who won the Stella Artois Players Championship at Dainfern on the weekend, was the biggest climber on the official rankings. He climbed 107 places to be inside the world’s top 200 at 192nd.
South Africa’s top-ranked golfer remains Louis Oosthuizen, who was unchanged in 15th place as he recuperates from an injury sustained in South Carolina the week before. Erik van Rooyen, unchanged in 58th, and Shaun Norris, unchanged in 62nd, round out the top three South Africans on the list.
SOUTH AFRICA’S TOP 101. Louis Oosthuizen (15 – unchanged)
2. Erik van Rooyen (58 unchanged)
3. Shaun Norris (62 – unchanged)
4. Christiaan Bezuidenhout (66 – down 2)
5. Dean Burmester (69 – down 1)
6. Garrick Higgo (94 – down 2)
7. Daniel van Tonder (99 – down 1)
8. Branden Grace (103 – down 1)
9. Justin Harding (105 – up 1)
10. Oliver Bekker (112 – up 6)