It’s been over a year and a half since high-level golf underwent a significant transformation with the launch of LIV Golf, the Saudi league that kicked off with a hefty chequebook in June 2022, hiring some of the world’s best players. Since then, those big names (Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Cameron Smith, Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio García or Patrick Reed, among others) have only been able to measure themselves against the cream of the crop of world golf in the Majors.
Some of these LIV players, at different times, have made a strong impression. Just remember Koepka‘s victory in last year’s PGA, or his second place in the Masters of the same year; or Smith‘s triumph in the 2022 Open, although he won it before leaving for LIV, and the Australian’s fourth place in last year’s US Open; or that second place also by Mickelson in the 2023 Masters.
There is, on the other hand, a morbid debate permanently open about whether the hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars invested by LIV in the hiring of its players have shone as much as they should in the majors, which are the great filter that truly separates the good from the very good, and the very good from the extraordinary. Where is LIV really in the most important tournaments on the calendar? How much does it weigh, therefore, and what is its significance? There was a way to try to answer these questions. A very simple way, but efficient enough to get more than an idea: add up the world ranking points that each one treasures in the Majors, only in the Majors, since the launch of LIV Golf. From this starting point we have established a particular top 100 in the world according to the gross points added in the last six majors, which are the ones that have been played in the LIV era.
Let’s go to the resulting relationship, to then draw some conclusions and note other data extracted from the study, not without first acknowledging that this analysis is not definitive, and much less accurate, especially for two reasons. The first: with the passing of the months and the Majors there were and are LIV players who have not been able to play some of them, weighed down by their fall in the world ranking. In some cases, however, it could be argued that they were also unable to mitigate such a fall precisely with more brilliant performances in the majors they did play, or in other tournaments, beyond LIV, whether from the European or Asian circuit. The second reason: there are LIV players who joined the Saudi league after having already played some of these six Majors. The most obvious case is that of Jon Rahm, who has not yet played any Major as a member of LIV, or the aforementioned case of Smith, who won the Open without yet belonging to the Saudi league. In any case, we already ascribe the Spaniard as a LIV man in this particular ranking, since after all his expensive signing was made based on this type of record.
WORLD RANKING IN GROSS (TOP 100) ACCORDING TO THE SIX MAJORS PLAYED IN THE LIV GOLF ERA:
1. Jon Rahm, 168.6 points (LIV)
2. Scottie Scheffler, 163.10
3. Brooks Koepka, 161.55 (LIV)
4. Rory McIlroy, 158.00
5. Cameron Smith, 151.75 (LIV)
6. Matt Fitzpatrick, 129.44
7. Brian Harman, 125.00
8. Viktor Hovland, 111.37
9. Wyndham Clark, 105.35
10. Cameron Young, 96.50
11. Tommy Fleetwood, 71.86
12. Tom Kim, 69.85
13. Patrick Cantlay, 60.10
14. Sepp Straka, 58.35
15. Hideki Matsuyama, 56.97
16. Xander Schauffele, 56.25
17. Will Zalatoris, 54.46
18. Jordan Spieth, 52.27
19. Phil Mickelson, 51.57 (LIV)
20. Collin Morikawa, 49.00
21. Bryson DeChambeau, 48.80 (LIV)
22. Patrick Reed, 42.36 (LIV)
23. Jason Day, 41.95
24. Dustin Johnson, 41.45 (LIV)
25. Min Woo Lee, 41.07
26. Tyrrell Hatton, 37.31
27. Russell Henley, 35.66
28. Shane Lowry, 30.07
29. Adam Scott, 27.65
30. Kurt Kitayama, 27.62
31. Gary Woodland, 27.50
32. Denny McCarthy, 26.36
33. Keegan Bradley, 26.03
34. Sahith Theegala, 25.80
35. Rickie Fowler, 25.62
36. Justin Rose, 25.05
37. Cameron Davis, 24.66
38. Adam Hadwin, 20.98
39. Max Homa, 20.75
40. Harris English, 20.10
41. Abraham Ancer, 19.50 (LIV)
42. Emiliano Grillo, 19.00
43. Victor Perez, 17.80
44. Corey Conners, 17.66
45. Thomas Detry, 16.67
46. Sam Burns, 16.27
47. Si Woo Kim, 16.15
48. Joaquín Niemann, 16.06 (LIV)
49. Thomas Pieters, 15.92 (LIV)
50. Sungjae Im, 15.50
50. Shubhankar Sharma, 15.50
52. Ryan Fox, 14.75
53. Joel Dahmen, 14.62
54. Tony Finau, 14.46
55. Seamus Power, 14.35
56. Nick Hardy, 13.93
57. Dean Burmester, 13.60 (LIV)
58. K. H. Lee, 13.25
59. Harold Varner III, 13.01 (LIV)
60. Hayden Buckley, 13.00
60. Matthew Jordan, 13.00
62. Samuel Bennett, 12.90
63. Chris Kirk, 12.80
64. Austin Eckroat, 12.50
65. Eric Cole, 12.45
66. Mackenzie Hughes, 12.25
66. Patrick Rodgers, 12.25
68. Sebastián Muñoz, 11.90 (LIV)
69. Jordan Smith, 11.53
70. Sadom Kaewkanjana, 11.50
71. Lucas Herbert, 11.30
72. Adrian Meronk, 11.11
73. Billy Horschel, 10.89
74. Guillermo Mito Pereira, 10.10 (LIV)
75. J. T. Poston, 10.00
76. Henrik Stenson, 9.87 (LIV)
77. Keith Mitchell, 9.70
78. Justin Suh, 9.66
79. Cameron Tringale, 9.50 (LIV)
80. Guido Migliozzi, 9.30
81. Matthew NeSmith, 9.15
82. Nicolai Hojgaard, 9.00
82. Michael Block, 9.00
84. Andrew Putnam, 8.95
85. Aaron Wise, 8.47
86. Padraig Harrington, 8.31
87. Francesco Molinari, 8.25
87. Callum Tarren, 8.25
87. Anthony Quayle, 8.25
90. Marc Leishman, 8.00 (LIV)
90. Alex Fitzpatrick, 8.00
92. Talor Gooch, 7.65 (LIV)
93. Laurie Canter, 7.50
94. Zach Johnson, 7.32
95. Richard Bland, 6.90 (LIV)
96. Antoine Rozner, 6.50
97. Scott Stallings, 6.46
98. Samuel Stevens, 6.40
99. Sergio García, 6.16 (LIV)
100. Ryutaro Nagano, 5.93
– There is an interesting fact that can and should also be contributed. Of all these players only seven managed to score in each and every one of the six Majors that have been played in the LIV era. Or in other words: only seven players made the cut in all. Namely: Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Reed and Tyrrell Hatton.
– The merits of Jon in this ranking, in which he is the Number One, were all given without being a LIV player, but we already hang such a label on him in the relationship to graphically expand the dimension of the weight that LIV may have in the future. However, the Spaniard will have to prove that in his new ecosystem he is capable of maintaining the same performance when he truly faces all the best. Which brings us to the next point…
– According to the precedents, it is not so simple to maintain competitive tension in the Majors, once one has left for LIV. The case of Koepka tells us otherwise, obviously. And even that of Reed, capable of passing all the cuts. Dustin Johnson, however, despite appearing just inside the top 25 of our particular ranking, has maintained in the Majors the tempered line that he was already pointing just before leaving for the Saudi league (a tempered line only, let’s clarify, according to his excellent stature as a player, widely demonstrated). Oosthuizen, for example, has barely added 4.96 points in the six Majors analysed, which is not enough to get him into the top 100, and he was coming from two second places and a third in the 2021 Majors. In addition, both Burmester and Pieters or Tringale, who joined LIV later, obtained their best results in the majors before leaving… In general, there is not a single player who has improved their records in the Majors after leaving for LIV Golf. Not even Koepka, who was already shining in these events as much or more before his transfer. This is Jon’s great challenge, to whom we certainly intuit, and even presuppose, enough capacity to keep the bar high.
– In total, we have TWENTY LIV Golf players in this world top 100 compiled according to only the last six Majors, if we count Jon among them, as we have done. Ten, moreover, appear in the top 50, with seven in the top 25 and three in the top ten, although only four do so in the top 20. These are not negligible figures at all, quite the opposite, especially with the incorporation of Rahm, who will presumably bring a lot of weight to the heights. Do such records validate the millionaire spending and satisfy the expectations that the Saudi league itself set in its day? This is another story and the basis of the debate that is undoubtedly on the street.
Be that as it may, the great challenge of LIV Golf continues to be to make its own product attractive and in this objective not only does the fact of signing some of the best count, although it obviously weighs a lot.
– Other Spanish players, in addition to Jon and Sergio, have also added something in these Majors, but it was not enough to enter the top 100: David Puig (3.45 points), Adrián Otaegui (1.85), Adri Arnaus (1.50) and Pablo Larrazábal (1.26). Sergio has barely made it into the top 100 (6.16 points) thanks mainly to his performance in the 2023 US Open, where he finished in 27th place.
– It is striking how in our particular ranking the current three firsts in the world ranking, Scheffler, McIlroy and Rahm, appear among the first four, although in a different order. The weight of the majors and the excellence of these players.
– Needless to say, winning one of these six Majors means a decisive boost thanks to the 100 points awarded to the winner. In this respect, it is worth highlighting the outstanding presence of three players who, without having won any of these six Majors of the LIV era, also score many points: Scheffler, McIlroy and Hovland.
