LIV star makes world-ranking leap with playoff win in Saudi Arabia

After being burned by Jon Rahm at the last moment to lose the 2024 LIV season-long title, Joaquin Niemann has fought back for a big win of his own, one that brings with it a ton of valuable world-ranking points.

The 26-year-old Chilean LIV star survived a furious nine-under charge by fellow LIV pro Cameron Smith on Sunday at the 2024 PIF Saudi International, eventually outlasting Smith and Caleb Surrat — another LIV Golf player — in a playoff to win.

Despite the preponderance of LIV pros on top of the leaderboard, the Saudi International is not a LIV event. Instead, it’s an Asian Tour event sponsored by the Saudi PIF — financial backers of LIV Golf. The tournament is part of the International Series, a 10-tournament series which was created to both give LIV players a chance to earn world ranking points and new players a chance to earn a spot on LIV.

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LIV events do not award world ranking points, which has caused its players to plummet in the ranking and threaten their ability to qualify for golf’s major championships. But because the International Series is sanctioned by the Asian Tour, it does award world ranking points to its competitors.

Niemann, who has two PGA Tour victories, reached as high as 15th in the Official World Golf Ranking back in 2022, but he saw his position dive after joining LIV in August of that year.

By December 2023, he’d fallen to 87th, well out of the range to qualify for majors, then won the 2023 Australian Open to jump to 59th.

But as recently as a month ago, Niemann’s ranking had fallen all the way down to 138th, before solid finishes at the DP World Tour Championship and 2024 Australian Open moved him to 124th heading into the Saudi International.

With his victory, Niemann is expected to take a massive leap up in the ranking, likely inside the top 75, according to the Associated Press.

Niemann’s win also earned him $1 million and the season-long International Series crown. He led the LIV Golf season-long chase for much of 2024, but Rahm eventually passed him at LIV Chicago to steal the title and its $18 million bonus.

After his win, Niemann admitted the loss to Rahm provided motivation for his efforts this week.

“The place where I finished in second on LIV, I really wanted to win. I feel like I worked really hard for it. I was going to say I feel like I deserve it, but you don’t really deserve anything here in sports,” Niemann explained. “I know that I feel like it give me that extra motivation to come and play here for this last event of the year and make something happen.”

He continued, “It’s great to have a win with the International Series ranking as well. Yeah, it gives me a better taste at the end of the year that beats second on LIV. So I’m really happy with the way it finished and looking forward for the time off.”

Niemann’s much-deserved time off might not be as relaxing as in other years. The pro also revealed that he’s getting married on December 21st ahead of Christmas and New Year’s with his family. Now they’ll all have a little something extra to celebrate during their busy holiday season.