Red-hot Ritchie has tongues wagging with incredible 153-place rankings jump in just 2 months

After his second win in two weeks, this time at the Sunshine Tour’s Jonsson Workwear Open, JC Ritchie climbed another 45 places on the latest Official World Golf Ranking list which was released on Monday.

Ritchie's meteoric rise up the list takes him to on the verge of the top 150 players in the world.

He is now ranked 151st, having begun the year in 304th.

He is a little way off his career-high ranking of 120th achieved in 2020, but his recent purple patch has him heading in that direction very rapidly.

He is the 13th-best player from South Africa on that list, with Louis Oosthuizen remaining this country’s number one.

The 2010 Open champion remains in 13th place in the world, and he is one of nine players inside the world’s top 100.

Justin Harding is the ninth of those players, down three places in 98th.

Dylan Frittelli remains the 10th-best player, and he climbed four places into 116th after his share of 16th in the Honda Classic on the PGA Tour at the weekend.

Besides Ritchie’s great boost in the rankings, the next-best performer from South Africa was his great friend Jaco Prinsloo, who climbed 23 places to 282nd after his share of fourth in Durban at the weekend.

Ritchie has a chance to pull off a third win in three weeks as he plays in the Mangaung Open in Bloemfontein.

That tournament, like last week’s is also co-sanctioned by the Challenge Tour, and if Ritchie wins, he will gain automatic and immediate exemption onto the DP World Tour, and is fully exempt for the following season too.

South Africa’s top 10

1.       Louis Oosthuizen (13 - unchanged)

2.       Christiaan Bezuidenhout (59 – down 1)

3.       Erik van Rooyen (63 – up 1)

4.       Garrick Higgo (74 – unchanged)

5.       Dean Burmester (75 – unchanged)

6.       Shaun