OWGR: How did the BMW PGA Championship affect LIV players’ rankings?

As LIV Golf events don’t currently offer world ranking points, 17 LIV defectors played the BMW PGA Championship — the DP World Tour’s flagship event — to try and halt their decline in the OWGR. 

So where do the LIVers stand in the world rankings after three rounds at Wentworth? 

Talor Gooch was the highest defector on the leaderboard, finishing a solo fourth. With that, he jumped 11 spots in the world to No. 35. 

Patrick Reed, who fared T-5, stayed at No. 50 in the world. The only other defector inside the OWGR’s top 100 who played the BMW PGA and didn’t move in the rankings was Abraham Ancer, who stayed at No. 24. 

Lee Westwood placed T-13 and jumped from No. 100 to 96 and Sam Horsfield (T-18) moved from No. 95 to 88. Pablo Larrazabal went from No. 69 to 68 and Richard Bland, who cracked the world’s top 50 earlier this year, is now No. 76, one spot up from last week. 

Full-field scores from the BMW PGA Championship

Meanwhile, some LIV players who were hoping to increase their ranking at Wentworth ended up doing the opposite. 

Shaun Norris dropped from No. 93 to 97, Sergio Garcia, who WD after Round 1, went from No. 74 to 77 and Ian Poulter fell from No. 118 to 121 despite finishing T-32. 

Though LIV events do not offer world ranking points, the Saudi-backed league did recently apply for such designation. 

Noting some of the non-defectors’ movement in the OWGR, BMW PGA champion Shane Lowry jumped from No. 23 to 19, cracking the world’s top 20 for the first time since early 2020. 

Runner-up Rory McIlroy jumped one of the newest LIV defectors, Cam Smith, for the No. 2 spot in the world and Smith fell to No. 3. Jon Rahm, who was T-2 with McIlroy, stayed at No. 6 in the world.