Niemann comes out on top in rankings race

In the end, The International Series Rankings race went right down to the wire as in-form Joaquin Niemann claimed the honours with a play-off victory in the PIF Saudi International presented by SoftBank Investment Advisers, on a final day that had just about everything at Riyadh Golf Club.

In an afternoon of constantly changing permutations, Niemann held his nerve on the second play-off hole to claim the 1000 points for champion, seeing off Caleb Surratt and Cameron Smith after all three LIV Golf stars had birdied the par-four 18th at the first attempt.

That result put him top of the rankings on 1126 points, edging out RangeGoats GC player Peter Uihlein, who had been leading going into the final tournament of the season, by the slimmest of margins with just 13.3 points separating the pair once the dust had settled.

Niemann, captain of Torque GC, was delighted to clinch the rankings title. The season-ending win in Saudi Arabia, with the largest prize fund on the Asian Tour, and a third place in the campaign opener in Oman proved enough to get him over the line. Niemann had finished on -21 after four rounds alongside Surratt and Smith.

The result denied an Asian Tour player a direct route to LIV Golf for the first time, after Scott Vincent and Andy Ogletree played their way onto the roster in 2022 and 2023, but with another golden ticket up for grabs in the LIV Golf Promotions event at the same venue from 12-14 December, the players at the top of the rankings still have plenty to play for.  

Niemann, who won twice on LIV Golf this season and finished runner-up to Jon Rahm in the series standings, believes The International Series Rankings race is of real value to the next wave of talent waiting to push on into the big time.

He said: “What I appreciate is it is a big prize playing in The International Series. I feel like they are all waiting, they are all fighting their way for the future, the future of the game, the future of their career, and having a spot to get into LIV Golf is here too.

“It is more than just say thank you for The International Series to have this setup, this platform to LIV Golf, and have that motivation for a lot of kids and young players that dream of playing on the biggest stage.

“I have a lot of friends back home that are trying to make it. I feel like the Asian Tour is going to be a great pathway for them to accomplish their goals.”

Uihlein had started the day in T2 with Surratt, just one behind the Torque GC star Niemann. After winning International Series Qatar last time out following his win in England earlier this season, the RangeGoats GC star was a hot favourite to do enough to claim the rankings title overall.

But after parring the front nine, he dropped four shots on the return, before carding his only birdie of the day on 18 to finish three over in T29, enough to finish second overall.

He said: “Just one of those days. It was a good year, good season. I am not disappointed at all. Just did not go my way today. Putter just abandoned me. Obviously I made my share the first three days, so I think it caught me.”

While the season finale was full of thrills for the many golf fans following on ground and on TV, it only brought heartache for Ben Campbell.

The International Series Morocco champion, sitting third going into the tournament, put together a second consecutive seven-under 64 to force his way into the reckoning, but still fell just one shot short of the three-way play-off.

hat result gave the New Zealander 235 points and put him above John Catlin with 1086.55 points. It still left him 40 adrift of a place on the LIV Golf League next season, after a memorable campaign that brought five top ten finishes and the win in Rabat.

He said: “It was close. Obviously disappointing. It always comes down to a few of those putts at the end of the year or those shots. It is what it is, and you can't do much about it. Golf's a pretty cruel game sometimes, sometimes it comes off and sometimes it doesn't. The difference between a great round and a good round can be millimetres.

“The first round I played really well, then had a bad finish second round. You look back at that. Today I felt like I played really well. The putter went cold in the middle of the round and then I holed a couple coming in, so it was close, wasn’t far away. It always comes down to a few of those putts at the end of the year or those shots. It Is what it is, and you cannot do much about it.”

Catlin, the Asian Tour Order of Merit champion, had led the rankings for most of the season after winning the International Series Macau presented by Wynn and narrowly losing play-offs in Morocco to Campbell and the Black Mountain Championship to MJ Maguire. But he had to settle for fourth place in the rankings after a six-under 65 took him to T34.

Richard T Lee, the BNI Indonesian Masters champion, finished in fifth with Surratt moving up to sixth, pushing International Series Thailand champion Lee Chieh-po seventh and Maguire eighth.

Those finishes are crucial ahead of next week’s LIV Golf Promotions event, with players ranked two to eight receiving a bye into round two of the four-round tournament, alongside all Asian Tour champions from the 2024 season.

The next best 25 players in the top 40 of the rankings qualify for the first round of the tournament, which offers one golden ticket onto the LIV Golf League for the champion. LIV Golf Promotions takes place from 12-14 December at Riyadh Golf Club.