The first victory of Josele Ballester as a professional, achieved this Saturday at the PIF Saudi International in Riyadh, has allowed him to make an extraordinary leap in the world ranking. Quantitative and qualitative. He came practically from the desert and it was curiously in the desert where he catapulted. He has moved from being beyond the 1,000th position in the ranking (1,063 exactly) to being around 260. It will be known for sure when all the tournaments of this week are finished. In any case, it will be about 800 steps swallowed in one go. That’s what winning the most important tournament of the year on the Asian Tour does.
The truth is that Josele was very low in the ranking. It was logical. A consequence of having started his professional career this very year, just seven months ago, and also as a player of LIV Golf, whose tournaments do not offer points. Ballester had barely played 10 qualifying events for the OWGR and his best result had been a fourteenth in Hong Kong, curiously the event before this Saudi International. He was getting close.
The quantitative leap is evident. There are those 800 positions. However, perhaps the most important is the qualitative. It is a victory that makes noise and places him on the radar of the Majors. Beyond getting closer to the world top 100, there is an alarm that goes off at the Masters or the PGA, Majors that can issue invitations based on performance beyond what the world ranking says. In Augusta, they already know him from last year and anything that means climbing in the ranking will be more than positive. Needless to say what could happen with the PGA Championship. All those in the world top 100 receive an invitation, so getting closer to that position is very positive.
Josele’s year doesn’t end precisely in Saudi. It seems that the victory comes at the right and opportune moment. Not in vain, he is also going to play the next two weeks in the DP World Tour tournaments in the southern hemisphere. Specifically, he is going to compete in the PGA Australian Championship and the Australian Open, in both cases with an invitation. It will be three consecutive weeks that can change many scenarios for the 22-year-old from Castellón. Imagine what could happen with a second victory, although that might be going too far… In any case, no one will take away that he won his first ranking-valid tournament on the eleventh attempt, which is not bad at all.
On the other hand, the PIF Saudi International has put the finishing touch to the season of the International Series. The top two ranked players jump to LIV Golf. Big prize. The lucky ones are Scott Vincent, also the winner of the order of merit, and Yosuke Asaji, who has experienced the two longest and most stressful days of his career after missing the cut and being forced to wait to see what others did. Miguel Tabuena has been his main rival for that second place. The Filipino had it in his hands, but finally fell just short. He finished just over 25 points behind Asaji. He would have needed a couple more birdies to secure the spot. Even a shared fifth place wouldn’t have been enough, as he would have reached it had he finished with one less stroke.
In principle, as is being said, although it is not yet official, Vincent and Asaji will form a new team in LIV Golf along with the two who secure their spot through the LIV School in January in Florida. Lastly, regarding the Asian Tour ranking, Kazuki Higa remains in the first position.
