Shaun Norris vaults into worlds top 100

[Tuesday, October 16, 2018 05:51:58]

Shaun Norris jumped into the world’s top 100 of the Official World Golf Ranking at the weekend after his second-place finish in the 83rd playing of the Japan Golf Open at Yokohama Country Club.

He finished on 12-under-par, two shots behind winner Yuki Inamori, and four clear of Terumichi Kakazu and Hiroshi Iwata who shared third. That took him to a career-high 93rd on the world rankings, making him the sixth South African currently inside the top 100 in the world.

The other South Africans are Louis Oosthuizen (37), Branden Grace (47), Charl Schwartzel (67), Dylan Frittelli (73) and Justin Harding (91). Harding was the only one of those who climbed in the rankings last week, after his share of 43rd in the CIMB Classic in Malaysia.

It was Norris’ fifth top-10 finish of the season on the Japan Golf Tour, and the 22-million yen cheque that came with it was his biggest of the season. It also vaulted him to fourth on the Japan Golf Tour money list.

Norris, who won the 2008 Africa Open and the 2011 Nashua Masters on the Sunshine Tour, has carved out a lucrative career for himself in Japan since he started playing on that tour in 2016. He finished 43rd on the money list in 2016 after winning the Leopalace21 Myanmar Open, and seventh last year when he won the JGT Championship Mori Building Cup.

He has played just three tournaments on the 2018-19 Sunshine Tour, finishing in a share of eighth in the Royal Swazi Spa Challenge, missing the cut in the Sun Carnival City Challenge and in a share of 13th at the Vodacom Origins of Golf event at Zebula.

Credit: The Sunshine Tour


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