LIV player eyes massive world ranking leap after Asian Tour win

This week’s International Series Oman event, sanctioned by the Asian Tour, was dominated by LIV players from the get-go. But after Sunday’s final round, one LIV pro in particular is set to make a massive leap in the Official World Golf Ranking.

That player is Mexico’s own Carlos Ortiz. Ortiz put together an impressive seven-under 65 on Saturday at Al Mouj Golf in Muscat, the capital city of the small country on the Arabian Peninsula.

That pulled him out of a tie with major champion and fellow LIV player Louis Oosthuizen, handing Ortiz an extremely meaningful victory.

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And not because of his $360,000 winner’s paycheck. Ortiz makes plenty of money playing on LIV, but what he can’t get while competing on the upstart tour is world ranking points.

The International Series Oman tournament, on the other hand, does dish out world ranking points due to the fact that the Asian Tour is recognized by the OWGR. That’s the primary reason 21 LIV players teed it up in Oman this week in the first place.

With OWGR rank being one of the few avenues into the four majors, LIV players need to get them somewhere to earn places in golf’s biggest tournament.

But Ortiz’s win will be even more impactful on his world ranking given just how far he had fallen. Before joining LIV, Ortiz played on the PGA Tour, where he captured one win at the 2020 Vivint Houston Open and rose to a peak ranking of 44, which is high enough to qualify for all four majors.

Since joining LIV, though, Ortiz has plummeted dramatically all the way down to No. 1,286. But that was before this week.

Now with an OWGR-sanctioned victory under his belt, Ortiz should skyrocket in the ranking come Monday morning when the latest data is released. (UPDATE: When the ranking was released on Monday, Ortiz jumped more than a thousand spots from No. 1,286 to No. 237.)

And he won’t be the only one. Oosthuizen finished runner-up in Oman, which should improve his current ranking of 137. Other LIV players who finished in the top 10 at the International Series Oman tournament include Joaquin Niemann (3rd), Mito Pereira (T4), Peter Uihlein (6th), Matthew Wolff (T7), David Puig (T10) and Lucas Herbert (T10).

After his winning round, Ortiz spoke to his goals for the year, including paying in the majors.

“I hope this is the start of a great year. It means so much to win an International Series event,” Ortiz said. “I would like to play in majors this year and win on the LIV Golf League.”

With Oman out of the way, those LIV pros will now make the short trip to Saudi Arabia for next week’s LIV Golf Jeddah event. And they’ll have a new golfer to compete against when they get there, former PGA Tour star Anthony Kim, who will reportedly make his much-anticipated return to pro golf in Jeddah.