Is This How The World Rankings Would Look If LIV Golf Was Included?

The Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) is in somewhat disarray at the moment following wholesale changes to its system last year and the emergence of LIV Golf, meaning that some of the game's best players have fallen dramatically after moving to the new Saudi-backed circuit.

Big names from both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf have criticised the OWGR, with LIV's world ranking fate set to be decided by the four men's Majors.

Dustin Johnson is no longer in the top 50, the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter are outside of the top 100 and Lee Westwood finds himself outside of the world's top 200. With LIV still not currently offering world ranking points, these big names are only going to continue sliding further down, no matter how well they play in the 14-event $405m series.

Sports Illustrated has taken it into its own hands by creating the Sports Illustrated World Golf Rankings (SIWGR) along with Golf Intelligence, and there's some very interesting player movements.

The SIWGR factors in LIV Golf and looks at the players' last 12 months instead of the OWGR's 24 month outlook. It also calculates strength-of-field and course difficulty, with the current top 100 set to be branched out further in the future and a women's rankings on the way, too.

The top three - Rahm, Scheffler and McIlroy - remain the same but Will Zalatoris ranks 4th, up from his position of 7th in the OWGR. The biggest notable change towards the top of the rankings sees Dustin Johnson in 13th, up from his current OWGR spot of 54th.

There are plenty of non-LIV players seeing huge rises up the SIWGR compared to the real-life OWGR, too. KH Lee is ranked 25th by Sports Illustrated compared to 38th in the OWGR, while Chris Kirk has gone from 47th to 31st, Jason Day from 46th to 32nd and Nick Taylor 71st to 37th.

However, and unsurprisingly, the biggest risers do indeed come from LIV Golf.

Anirban Lahiri ranks 99th in the OWGR and is set to slip outside of the top 100 very soon, but he is 42nd in the new SIWGR. Brooks Koepka, 85th in the OWGR, is 53rd. Sergio Garcia has gone from 129th in the OWGR up to 66th by Sports Illustrated, Charl Schwartzel from 184th to 81st and Lee Westwood from 228th to 85th.

The two biggest risers in the SIWGR compared to the OWGR are Peter Uihlein and Eugenio Chacarra. Uilhein is ranked 70th by Sports Illustrated compared to 403rd in the OWGR, while LIV Bangkok champion Chacarra is 84th in the SIWGR compared to 501st in the OWGR.

Not all LIV players have seen rises, though, with World No.5 Cameron Smith dropping to 6th in the SIWGR and Abraham Ancer going from 27th in the OWGR all the way down to 60th in the SIWGR.

“As the benchmark for comprehensive sports coverage, we are thrilled to create the SI World Golf Rankings to give fans an alternative way to analyze players across global tours,” said Chris Pirrone, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Sports Illustrated. “We believe the rankings are a better reflection of the state of professional golf competition, are more robust and comprehensive, and provide a more accurate understanding of who the best golfers are right now.”  

“Golf Intelligence has unique and proprietary data, including on every golf course layout, with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to refine strength-of-field metrics and continuously inform SI Golf’s new ranking system,” said Jim Stracka, President of Golf Intelligence. 

Current SI World Golf Rankings, as of February 22, 2023:

• 1. Jon Rahm
• 2. Scottie Scheffler
• 3. Rory McIlroy
• 4. Will Zalatoris
• 5. Patrick Cantlay
• 6. Cameron Smith
• 7. Max Homa
• 8. Xander Schauffele
• 9. Justin Thomas
• 10. Tony Finau
• 11. Collin Morikawa
• 12. Matthew Fitzpatrick
• 13. Dustin Johnson 
• 14. Cameron Young
• 15. Tom Kim

View the full top 100 of the Sports Illustrated World Golf Ranking.