JOHANNESBURG – Erik van Rooyen vaulted back inside the list of the world’s top 100 golfers with his win on the PGA Tour at the weekend taking him to 79th on the latest Official World Golf Ranking.
The 31-year-old Van Rooyen got his maiden win on the PGA Tour to go with his one Sunshine Tour title, his one Challenge Tour title and his one European Tour title. That saw him climb 24 places on the latest rankings, and makes him South Africa’s fifth-ranked golfer currently.
Van Rooyen started 2021 in 51st position, but he has been as high as 40th twice in the rankings in 2020 after his share of third in the WGC-Mexico Championship in February that year, and after his share of 21st in the RBC Heritage in June just three months later.
Up top of the South African rankings, Louis Oosthuizen climbed one place to seventh as former world number one Brooks Koepka slipped two spots to eighth. That takes Oosthuizen to his highest world ranking position since the sixth place he achieved in 2012 after coming second in the Barclays Singapore Open on the European and Asian Tours.
All other South African players inside the world’s top 100 except Branden Grace slipped down a position – three in the case of Daniel van Tonder – but with Van Rooyen’s jump, there were once again 10 South Africans inside the top 100. Dean Burmester is the last of those in 99th, and he’s not in action on the European Tour this coming week, so he could slip out.
George Coetzee won on the Sunshine Tour, and his title at the Vodacom Origins of Golf event at De Zalze in Stellenbosch lifted him six places into 113th. He’s the 11th-ranked South African, with two other South Africans – Brandon Stone in 117th and Shaun Norris in 129th – currently inside the top 150.
South Africa’s top 10:
1. Louis Oosthuizen 7 (up 1)
2. Garrick Higgo 42 (down 1)
3. Christiaan Bezuidenhout 45 (down 1)
4. Branden Grace 65 (unchanged)
5. Charl Schwartzel 76 (down 1)
6. Erik van Rooyen 79 (up 34)
7. Dylan Frittelli 82 (down 1)
8. Justin Harding 89 (down 1)
9. Daniel van Tonder 94 (down 3)
10. Dean Burmester 99 (down 1)
SA Tour Court