Elvis Smylie’s win in his LIV Golf debut came with a first-of-its-kind bonus.
Smylie became the first player in league history to earn first-place points in the Official World Golf Ranking after LIV was approved for OWGR inclusion last week. The 23-year-old Aussie collected 22.9869 points for winning LIV Riyadh, which was about two points more than former LIV player Patrick Reed got for capturing the DP World Tour’s Qatar Masters on Sunday.
Chris Gotterup received 58.0923 points for his WM Phoenix Open victory.
Smylie moved into the top 100 for the first time in his young career, jumping 57 spots to No. 77. Jon Rahm, who was runner-up to Smylie, went from No. 97 to No. 67, thanks to 13.3324 points, which was about two fewer than the five-way T-3 at WMPO but about four more than solo eighth at TPC Scottsdale. Second in Qatar got 12.4991.
While LIV, for the first time since its June 2022 inception, is officially a world-ranked tour, it’s still only receiving points for its top-10 finishers. Three-way T-9 on LIV on Sunday was awarded 2.75842; Seven-way T-28 at WMPO got 2.56436.
Here is a look at the OWGR movement for the top 10 finishers at LIV Riyadh:
1. Elvis Smylie: 134 -> 77
2. Jon Rahm: 97 -> 67
3. Peter Uihlein: 199 -> 154
4. Abraham Ancer: 616 -> 449
4. David Puig: 95 -> 87
4. Thomas Pieters: 564 -> 419
7. Thomas Detry: 62 -> 63
8. Sebastian Munoz: 767 -> 566
9. Ben An: 111 -> 107
9. Branden Grace: 463 -> 401
9. Lucas Herbert: 257 -> 223
LIV continues its season this week at LIV Adelaide.