American Peter Uihlein climbed to the top of The International Series Rankings after securing a second win of the season, deposing John Catlin as the campaign builds up to a thrilling climax with this week’s PIF Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers at Riyadh Golf Club.
Uihlein claimed a comfortable five-shot victory in the $US2.5 million International Series Qatar, the penultimate event of the season, and collected 450 rankings points.
Combined with his win at International Series England earlier this season and his T2 at International Series Thailand, Uihlein leapt from fourth to top spot with 1071.10 points, edging ahead of Catlin, who had led since his victory at International Series Macau presented by Wynn back in March, on 927.45.
With a bumper 1,000 points going to the winner in Saudi this week, there is still all to play for and nearest challengers Ben Campbell of New Zealand (851.55), Canada’s Richard T Lee (682.68), Lee Chieh-po (633.97) from Chinese Taipei and American MJ Maguire (541.26) will all still feel confident of pushing for a vital second victory of the season.
A win in Saudi would give one of them top spot at the end of the season and a place on the LIV Golf League roster, while the 525 points for second and 300 for third place could also be vital if the win goes to one of the big names from LIV Golf League – including Cameron Smith, Joaquin Niemann and Tyrrell Hatton - set to feature in Riyadh.
As a member of Range Goats GC, Uihlein would not claim the spot on the LIV Golf League roster that goes to the champion, but the American feels the title would strengthen his case for receiving invites onto the majors next season.
Following his win at Doha Golf Club, Uihlein said: “Now I have to try and win (the rankings). Have a good week hopefully and win, and then it is like my case at the end of the day. The worst thing they can do is say no, and if that is the case then I will try and qualify within the events. The Open and the PGA Championship, they would be the ones I could probably lobby for. And obviously Rankings champion is nice to have on your CV as well.”
It is little wonder that Uihlein is confident going into the Saudi finale, as he finished T3 in the Saudi Open presented by PIF at the same course earlier this season.
However he won’t be the only one with a spring in his step as Catlin won the event, the second of back-to-back events following his play-off victory over David Puig – sparked by a wonderful 59 – in Macau.
Uihlein said: “They will have the course a little longer which is going to be good to see, but it should be great. I had a good weekend there, I made the cut on the number and then had a good weekend so I have good memories, let’s see.”
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With 32 places available on the LIV Golf Promotions event from 12-14 December, there is plenty of competition to get into the top 40 of the rankings and South Africa’s Jaco Ahlers (32) and Ian Snyman (34) were big movers, thanks to T10 finishes in Qatar. Miguel Tabuena of the Philippines (16) and Suteepat Prateeptienchai of Thailand (20) both moved into the top 20 after finishing T3 and T5 respectively at the weekend.
The LIV Golf Promotions event champion will secure a place on the roster for the 2025 season, while the top 10 will all receive exemptions for all tournaments on The International Series schedule for next season.
The International Series is the most prized pathway in golf. It consists of 10 elite tournaments sanctioned by the Asian Tour and offers the year-long Rankings leader promotion to the LIV Golf League
