LIV Golf Achievements

Here is the top 10 in the standings for 2026 through 9 of 12 events:

1. Jon Rahm – 928.58
2. Bryson DeChambeau – 644.40
3. Joaquin Niemann – 344.66
4. Tyrrell Hatton – 332.93
5. Lucas Herbert – 331.23
6. Thomas Detry – 323.25
7. Anthony Kim – 292.71
8. David Puig – 284.24
9. Elvis Smylie – 265.60
10. Sergio Garcia – 233.50

Rahm can clinch the individual points title race at the next event (LIV UK in late July), and for him to be caught DeChambeau would need to win at least one more event (but likely two).

For the first time ever, LIV is earning OWGR points. Here is the total cumulative OWGR points for the top 10. This ignores OWGR point time reduction and just adds all points won by the golfers at that time.

1. Jon Rahm – 113.08
2. Bryson DeChambeau – 76.14
3. Tyrrell Hatton – 36.80
4. Lucas Herbert – 36.29
5. Thomas Detry – 36.22
6. Joaquin Niemann – 33.04
7. David Puig – 29.63
8. Anthony Kim – 27.22
9. Elvis Smylie – 25.63
10. Sergio Garcia – 23.25

Rahm has been hogging a lot of the points, but in doing so has proved that an elite player can qualify for the majors by dominating LIV. Rahm’s averaging 14.14 points per LIV event, which even with the time reduction element taken into account, puts him well into the top 10 in the world. As long as he continues to play well in majors and maybe adds a few other Euro Tour events, he could theoretically play a LIV-dominant schedule the next decade and still qualify for all the majors (even without winning another one). His 2023 Masters exemptions will expire at the 2028 PGA and 2028 British. His 2021 U.S. Open win gets him into the Opens until 2032.

Speaking of Rahm, his strokes gained on LIV in 2026 are insane. Here is the top 10 by overall strokes gained for LIV events only, look at the gap Rahm has over second.

1. Jon Rahm: +2.74
2. Bryson DeChambeau: +1.70
3. Thomas Detry: +1.49
4. David Puig: +1.30
5. Scott Vincent: +1.18
6. Branden Grace: +1.16
7. Joaquin Niemann: +1.13
8. Dean Burmester: +1.02
9. Lucas Herbert: +0.96
10. Marc Leishman: +0.96
11. Dustin Johnson: +0.96

While Rahm’s been an example of how someone playing on LIV can still qualify for all the majors, Detry is the counter-example to this. Detry is a comfortable third in strokes gained per round on LIV in 2026, but is missing out on the U.S. Open. He’s not been able to record a win yet on LIV, and his PGA Championship missed cut also hurt his chances at adding more OWGR points. Currently at 65th in the world, he is also in jeopardy of missing the British unless he adds some events to get into the top 50 in the world, wins an OQS event, or qualifies in Final qualifying.

Despite this, there are a few other names on this list that might be a bit surprising. Scott Vincent is up to 85th in Data Golf and has locked in a spot in LIV for 2027 (assuming the league survives). Doing well in the International Series (Asian Tour), he’s played his way into the 2026 British Open at Royal Birkdale. Branden Grace, who hasn’t played in a major since the 2023 British, is currently 77th in Data Golf and trending back to being the type of player he was about a decade ago.

Career Achievements

The points system internal to LIV changed in 2026, so we are now tracking career points in reference to first place that tournament. In other words, for each tournament in LIV, the winner receives 1 point and each subsequent place receives the proportion of actual points in relation to first. Here are the top 10 in terms of total (adjusted) points:

1. Jon Rahm – 16.18
2. Joaquin Niemann – 16.10
3. Bryson DeChambeau – 13.94
4. Talor Gooch – 12.42
5. Cameron Smith – 11.29
6. Sergio Garcia – 11.08
7. Dustin Johnson – 11.07
8. Brooks Koepka – 9.95
9. Patrick Reed – 9.18
10. Carlos Ortiz – 8.62

Rahm retook the lead from Niemann following his second place finish at LIV Andalucia, and his average finish of 0.46 (in 35 LIV events) indicates he is getting nearly half the points the winner an average each time he tees it up. Of the six players who have played in each LIV round since its inception; Talor Gooch, Sergio Garcia, and Dustin Johnson make the top 10. The others are Ian Poulter (47th in career LIV points), Peter Uihlein (30th), and Richard Bland (34th).

The Team Standings through 9 events show the following:

1. 4Aces GC – 140.00
2. Legion XIII – 118.00
3. Ripper GC – 112.25
4. Crushers – 97.00
5. Fireballs GC – 67.50
6. Torque GC – 70.75
7. Southern Guards GC – 65.75
8. OKGC – 61.00
9. HyFlyers GC – 39.50
10. Cleeks Golf Club – 37.00
11. RangeGoats GC – 36.25
12. Korean Golf Club – 27.75
13. Majesticks Golf Club – 27.75

The 4Aces now have a sizable lead of 22 points, with the additions of Thomas Detry and Anthony Kim helping to rebuild the team that won the inaugural LIV season. Dustin Johnson has also been playing better of late. In fact, here are the individual SG ranks for each member of the Aces:

• Detry: 3
• Johnson: T9
• Pieters: 24
• Kim: T26

Individual Standings – Relegation and other Storylines

The new relegation system means that the top 34 golfers are in the Lock Zone (Green) and get their spots in LIV 2027. From 35-46 is the Open Zone (Yellow) meaning they are eligible to play in 2027 if signed by a team. Last off-season there was some confusion surrounding Jinichiro Kozuma, who was eligible to return but never signed. Those in the Open Zone can still qualify back into LIV if not picked up. From 47 on down is the Relegation Zone (Red) which means the player has to leave LIV but can still qualify through the other means (win International Series on Asian Tour or through Qualifying series).

With that in mind, here are some notable storylines surrounding the zones through 75% of the season.

The “Young Guns” are LIV’s 20-somethings that the league is hoping will do well in order to build a future for the burgeoning tour. Here’s how they are doing.

Joaquin Niemann (3rd) continues to play great in LIV, having won his 8th career tournament a few weeks ago in Korea. David Puig (8th) and Elvis Smylie (9th) are also easily into 2027. Puig for his part is ranked 44th in Data Golf. A bit below these guys, but still comfortably in the Green Zone, are Josele Ballester (15th) and Matthew Wolff (24th). While I don’t know if Wolff has 100% locked in a spot for 2027, he’s got a great chance of staying in the top 34 with so few tournaments remaining. Tom McKibbin (30th) is 40.84 points clear of the Drop Zone and should be okay even if he doesn’t play great over the last three events. Caleb Surratt (35th) is just 1.20 points shy of the Lock Zone but is 13.24 points ahead of the Drop Zone. He will want to get back into the Green, but should have a spot for 2027 if Legion XIII wishes to keep him.

Sitting in the red Drop Zone are Luis Masaveu (48th), Michael La Sasso (50th), Minkyu Kim (55th), and Ben Schmidt (61st, alternate). La Sasso in particular is someone the league has interest in seeing play well. Signed by Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers out of college, he is wanting to prove to Phil that he was worth it. After a solid T12 finish in South Africa, he’s struggled to play good golf.

Aside from the Young Guns we just mentioned, there are other intriguing stories regarding the standings. Paul Casey is currently 44th, having missed the last two tournaments due to injury, effectively pushing a middle-of-the-road player that would have made it into 2027 to someone just 1.32 points clear of the final Open Zone position. With LIV off for 7 weeks, this might give him time to return in late July and resume his 2026 season. He will need to play and play well (enough) to maintain a spot in the Yellow Zone.

A couple of captains have played their ways out of the Drop Zone and into the Open Zone. Bubba Watson (37th) finished 9th in Andalucia and is 11.52 points ahead of spot 46. Ian Poulter (43rd) was averaging 5.14 points over his first five events, but turned this around and has averaged 11.04 over his next four. As a player needs to average around 7.50 points to make the top 46 and qualify for 2027, Poulter (averaging 7.76) has gone from the Red to Yellow Zone.

Not all captains are comfortable. Martin Kaymer (51st) just cannot string 4 good rounds together. The German surprised some people by playing relatively well at the PGA Championship, finishing T35 which when translated to LIV would be about a 9th/10th place finish. Had he produced such a finish in a LIV event, he’d likely be in the Yellow Zone, but solid results in majors don’t help a player’s LIV ranking. Kaymer has also missed an event (Adelaide), so he has quite a bit more work to do (19.23 points shy of 46).

Phil Mickelson has played in only one event for 2026, so he is well below the cut-off line and in 63rd place. This relates to some others as well, but it would be interesting to consider what LIV’s policy is regarding injuries or personal matters. The PGA Tour has Medical exemptions for these scenarios. No idea what LIV will do.