Grace eyes ranking surge

South African Branden Grace says he has set himself the challenge of breaking into the world’s top 10 this year.

Grace successfully defended his Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in January last year before breaking his duck on the PGA Tour when triumphing at the RBC Heritage by two strokes.

The Pretoria-born star ended 2016 as world number 17 and there is real optimism he can return to the top 10 in the rankings in 2017, having been 10th for a short time last year.

He has started 2017 in positive fashion and the 28-year-old has recorded back-to-back joint-13th finishes at the Sony Open in Hawaii and Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

Grace now hopes some consistent results will help him achieve his goal of climbing the world rankings.

“I’ve had a couple of solid years so I would like to get back in the top 10, I think my game is good enough to be there on a consistent basis,” he told Sport24.

“I’m 17th at the moment, but I feel positive about my game so I am keen to get back in the top 10, then once I’m there I will likely set new goals to get into the top 5 and so on.”

Grace is next in action on Thursday for the PGA Tour’s Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club, a tournament that former world number one Tiger Woods will miss due to injury.