JT Poston rises; LIV golfers continue to slide

JT Poston surpassed an important milestone in the latest Official World Golf Ranking. Meanwhile, most of the LIV members continue to drop in the world rankings.

Poston, who won the John Deere Classic on Sunday, rose from No. 99 to inside of the top 60, at No. 58. Should he remain there through next year’s US Open cutoff, he would earn an automatic spot at Los Angeles Country Club. He is already into next week’s Open Championship, as well as next year’s Masters and PGA Championship.

On the other hand, all but two of the 38 players who have played each of the first two LIV Golf events have suffered slides in the rankings since the June 5 update, which happened the week before the LIV opener in London.

While Kevin Na has improved one spot, to No. 33, and Charl Schwartzel has remained level at No. 126, the other 36 players have dropped a collective 570 spots in the OWGR during that period. Chase Koepka made the biggest decline, 89 spots, from No. 1,562 to No. 1,651.

Other notable falls include Martin Kaymer (25 spots, No. 215 to No. 240), Phil Mickelson (17 spots, No. 72 to No. 89) and Sam Horsfield (12 spots, No. 74 to No. 86). Mickelson is down 66 spots from the end of last year.

Here is a complete breakdown:

LIV events currently do not receive OWGR points, though the Saudi-backed league is applying for such designation. However, with just eight no-cut, 54-hole events with 48-player fields this year, the circuit doesn’t meet the criteria, and even if it changed its formats to comply with OWGR requirements, it would have to do so for a full year before being considered.

In other words, unless the LIV players, who are currently banned from playing on the PGA and DP World tours, perform well in the majors or play other international tours to boost their rankings, expect these slides to continue.