© Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters via Imagn Images
Australian golfer Elvis Smylie, the newest member of Cam Smith’s Ripper GC, just won his first LIV Golf event in his debut on the LIV Golf Tour. He took down the LIV Golf Riyadh event with a bogey-free final round of 64 with 8 birdies on the card and afterward he picked up some much needed OWGR points.
This was the first LIV Golf tournament where the top 10 finishers in each event will receive Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points which are often needed for players to qualify for major championships.
Which LIV Golfers Benefited Most From OWGR Points In Riyadh
The biggest benefactor of LIV Golf’s new OWGR points partnership was, of course, Elvis Smylie who won the event by 1-stroke over Jon Rahm.
The OWGR points standings are based on Average Points and not just Total Points accrued. This reflects a player’s dominance/success in every start and isn’t as skewed by outliers and premier events.
As an example, world #1 Scottie Scheffler sits atop the OWGR ranking with 17.0368 Average Points, over DOUBLE the next best golfer in the world. Scottie has earned 681.47097 in 40 events played. Rory McIlroy is #2 in the world with 8.4060 Average Points and 395.08198 total points earned in 47 events.
Being awarded OWGR points is new to LIV Golf as of the 2026 season. The top 10 players in the field for each LIV event will be awarded points and total amount of points awarded is based on the quality of the field. That means if Jon Rahm or Bryson DeChambeau wins The Masters and gains a LOT of OWGR points it will deeply benefit the LIV Golf field each week.
On the move
Back to Riyadh… Elvis Smylie was ranked 134th in the world in OWGR points prior to LIV Golf Riyadh. After winning, he moved up to 77th in the world with an Average Points of 1.5868.
Second place finisher in Riyadh, Jon Rahm, came into the LIV Golf season opener ranked 97th in OWGR points. He moved up to 67th after his second place finish.
In addition to those two, Sebastian Muñoz moved from 767th to 566th (201 spots), Abraham Ancer moved from 616th to 449th, and Thomas Pieters moved from 564th to 419th in the OWGR standings.
Why Does This Matter?
The top 50 ranked golfers in the world, based on OWGR points, are invited to The Masters each year. There are other ways to receive a Masters invitation including having won it before (Jon Rahm), or having won other Major Championships or qualifying amateur events.
In addition to The Masters, those ranked in the top 60 in OWGR points as of May 18th receive U.S. Open invitations. The top 50 on May 25th receive invitations to the Open Championship. And historically, those ranked in the top 100 in OWGR points receive invitations to the PGA Championship.
Until this season, LIV Golf Tour members had to accrue OWGR points either at Major Championships or in European and Asian Tour events, or through special qualification routes. Already, this seems to be improving the pathway for the golfers to climb the OWGR leader board.
As for how things went down in Riyadh, Jon Rahm wowed the field with the longest drive of Round 4 at 334.1 yards on the 10th hole. Elvis Smylie hit 12 of 14 fairways (85.71%) in his final round victory. Dustin Johnson was 9-of-9 in Scrambling and had just 20 putts in his final round (bogey-free 64).