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OWGR: J.T. Poston rises; LIV golfers continue to slide

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J.T. Poston surpassed an important milestone in the latest Official World Golf Ranking. Meanwhile, most all 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 U.S. 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:

Player June 5 July 3 Movement
Chase Koepka 1,562 1,651 -89
James Piot 1,751 1,806 -55
Wade Orsmby 265 300 -35
Itthipat Buranatanyarat 591 626 -35
Turk Pettit 600 634 -34
Martin Kaymer 215 240 -25
Ian Snyman 367 390 -23
Jediah Morgan 239 262 -23
Travis Smyth 395 417 -22
Blake Windred 259 280 -21
Phil Mickelson 72 89 -17
Shaun Norris 68 84 -16
Sam Horsfield 74 86 -12
Laurie Canter 119 131 -12
Lee Westwood 78 90 -12
Hideto Tanihara 180 192 -12
Peter Uihlein 327 338 -11
Sergio Garcia 57 68 -11
Graeme McDowell 374 384 -10
Bernd Wiesberger 94 104 -10
Branden Grace 123 132 -9
Adrian Otaegui 165 173 -8
Ryosuke Kinoshita 89 97 -8
Ian Poulter 92 100 -8
Richard Bland 67 74 -7
Hennie Du Plessis 133 139 -6
Jinichiro Kozuma 106 112 -6
Justin Harding 109 114 -5
Scott Vincent 91 96 -5
Phachara Khongwatmai 136 141 -5
Sihwan Kim 139 144 -5
Hudson Swafford 95 99 -4
Talor Gooch 35 38 -3
Sadom Kaewkanjana 118 121 -3
Dustin Johnson 15 17 -2
Louis Oosthuizen 21 22 -1
Charl Schwartzel 126 126 0
Kevin Na 34 33 1

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.