Shaun Norris’ steady progression to a potential place in the 2019 Masters championship at Augusta continued with the release of the latest rankings.
The 36-year-old finished in a share of third on the Japan tour this week, after his win two weeks ago, and climbed into 76th place.
Norris’ finish at the Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters kept him in third place in the South African rankings with Dylan Frittelli the latest to move past Charl Schwartzel.
The former Masters champion started the year in 33rd place but now sits in 80th place. Frittelli moved up one place to 79th.
At the top of the pile, Brooks Koepka regained his top spot from Justin Rose despite neither pegging it up this past week.
The rest of the top five remains the same with Francesco Molinari, who starts in Dubai this week leading the European Order of Merit moneylist, moving into sixth ahead of Rory McIlroy, who struggled all week at the Nedbank Golf Challenge.
Justin Harding climbed three places to 87th – his best ever world ranking after a stellar year on the Asian Tour.
The second last stop on the European Tour season was a profitable one for Lee Westwood, who launched himself back to his 2018 starting position of 64th from 119th with his first win in four years.
Runner-up Sergio Garcia moved up three places to 27th and Louis Oosthuizen was up two to 37th. Branden Grace, who bogeyed the final hole to drop into a share of 11th, held on to a top 50 spot after moving up two places to 46th in his defence of Africa’s Major.
