Fore! Things: Earning a LIV Spot for Next Year, and Parsing OWGR Points

Viktor Hovland got fewer points for winning the Hero this year than last, but it was still far more than others earned for winning full-field events this week.

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Fore! Things

1. Adrian Meronk came from a stroke back of Adam Scott to win the Australian Open, his second DP World Tour victory and one that moved him to 52nd in the world. He is expected to move into the top 50 by the end of the year, thus earning a Masters invite.

2. Min Woo Lee, Haydn Barron and Alejandro Canizares qualified for the 151st British Open at Royal Liverpool on the basis of their finishes at the Australian Open. Lee was third behind Meronk, with Barron tied for fourth with Canizares. The top three finishers not otherwise exempt get a spot via the Open’s qualifying series.

3. Scott Vincent, who played college golf at Virginia Tech and is from Zimbabwe, finished first on the International Series Order of Merit, the elevated series of events that are part of the Asian Tour. The schedule concluded Sunday in Indonesia. Vincent is now due a spot in LIV Golf for 2023 on the basis of his Order of Merit title. He played in all eight LIV Golf events this year, with his best finish 14th at the Chicago event.

4. After playing four events in two weeks—two in Australia and two in South Africa—the DP World Tour’s 2022-23 schedule continues this week Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek in South Africa. Ernie Els, Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen are in the field. Oosthuizen is clinging to hopes that he can get into the world top 50 before year’s end to secure a Masters invite. He’s currently 51st.

Fore! More Things

1. Victor Hovland received 29 points from the Official World Golf Ranking for winning the Hero World Challenge. A year ago, he got 48 for winning the same event. The new ranking system that went into place in August has clearly shown that smaller fields—only 20 players in the Bahamas—are impacted with fewer points.

2. And yet, Hovland’s points are nearly triple what Thirston Lawrence got (12) for winning in South Africa and Adrian Meronk (10) in Australia. Both of the full-field events were light on top 100 players; South Africa had no one in the top 50.

3. The Hero event getting points has always been controversial. It first received them in 2009 and was required to increase its field size to 18—now 20—and allow for no player ranked worse than 50th to play. This week, 18 of the 20 players were in the top 30 in the world. (Tournament host Tiger Woods is exempt from the top 50 ranking criteria if he plays.)

4. Tommy Fleetwood finished last at the Hero and got 2.088 ranking points. Charl Schwartzel, who tied for ninth in South Africa got 1.5 points. It took a tie for fifth to get Fleetwood’s total at the Hero. In Australia, a sixth-place finish was necessary to earn as many points as Fleetwood.