LIV pro makes an important step in the world ranking with the victory of St. Andrews

The big news from last week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship was that PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Rory McIlroy all beautifully done and they played golf together. But on Sunday in St. Andrews also saw some other big news: one of the most significant non-major wins by a LIV Golf professional.

Tyrrell Hatton shot a final round of 70 on the Old Course in St. Louis. Andrews to win the Alfred Dunhill Links for the third time but, more importantly, the first time as a member of LIV Golf.

Hatton began the 2024 season on the PGA Tour, combining it at the Sentry and the Sony Open in Hawaii in January. But on January 31, LIV Golf announced that the English veteran was among four professionals to join the new league funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

With LIV Golf events not awarding Official World Golf Ranking points, Hatton has seen his rankings drop since that fateful day. When he left the PGA Tour to join LIV, he was ranked 15th in the world, just a few spots off his peak of 12th.

By the time he got through it in the first round at Alfred Dunhill Links last Thursday, he had dropped to No. 38.

But the course at Dunhill Links – which is an annual pro-am that is played on The old course of St. Andrews, Carnoustie AND Kingsbarns – it’s not a joke. In fact, it was one of the strongest non-main fields found on the DP World Tour all year. In addition to Hatton, it featured world No.3 Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry, Billy Horschel and Robert MacIntyre, along with LIV stars Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed and Louis Oosthuizen.

With the win, Hatton made a massive jump in the world rankings, up to No. 20, nearly making up for all the ground he had lost by playing at LIV in 2024. One of the reasons that’s important is that all four major championships have qualifications based on OWGR rankings.

The Masters and Open Championships accept the top 50 in the OWGR, the US Open excludes the top 60, and the PGA Championship often offers special invitations to anyone inside the top 100.

Hatton has already qualified for the Masters through his T9 finish at Augusta National in 2024. But to reach the Open and US Open through the world rankings, he will need to stay inside the top 60 and top 50, respectively, on each of the dates of closing of the tournament next year.

That will now be much easier thanks to the jump to No. 20 he made last weekend on the old course.

The other important item at the top of Hatton’s mind at Dunhill Links was playing his way into the European Ryder Cup team. automatic qualifications for the European team are determined by a points system based primarily on DP World Tour performance and world rankings.

Hatton moved up to 5th in the European Ryder Cup rankings as a result of his win. It also earned him a spot in the upcoming Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and DP World Championship scheduled for November.

Those starts will give Hatton two more opportunities to improve his position in the OWGR rankings and in the European Ryder Cup, as he noted Sunday after his victory.

“It feels amazing. My last win was Abu Dhabi ’21 on the DP world tour. So that was a long time ago. And I knew when I came back to play in the British Masters and the Spanish Open last week that I really wanted to get enough points to be able to play in Abu Dhabi and Dubai from a world ranking points perspective, from a Ryder Cup points perspective,” Hatton said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to play in the PD World Tour Championship every year I’ve had my tour card. The win today secures my spot there. I’m very excited to compete in those two events at the end of the year.”

Making the achievement even more special was that Hatton played Dunhill Links alongside his father and it ended up being the first tournament win his father witnessed in person.

“This is the third time we’ve been able to play this tournament together, and I think finally this year, my dad kind of settled down and he played good golf. He played unreal yesterday, which was nice to see,” Hatton said on Sunday. “I know it made it more special if we could win the team race as well, but at the end of the day those are memories that none of We will never forget them, and for me to win the individual race today, it’s the first time I’ve won with my dad in a tournament. It makes it even more special and it was really cool that he had a seat in it first line for him.”

Kevin Cunningham

Editor of Golf.com

As managing producer for GOLF.com, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes stories on GOLF.com and manages the brand’s e-newsletters, which reach more than 1.4 million subscribers each month. A two-time former intern, he also helps make GOLF.com sound outside of the stories and service content provided by our reporters and writers, and works with the technology team on developing new products and innovative ways to deliver engaging engagement. site for our audience.