Joaquin Niemann expects the Official World Golf Ranking “to do the right thing for golf” as it reviews LIV Golf’s latest submission to receive world rankings points for its events.
The Chilean star has won a third of the 15 tournaments he has teed it up in worldwide this year and is by most accounts among the top tier of golfers on the planet. But Niemann is currently No. 103 in the OWGR because his five wins in 11 LIV Golf events in 2025 haven’t accrued any rankings points.
He was No. 68 after a tie for third in an Asian Tour event in February and he also tied for eighth at the PGA Championship before missing the cut at the year’s final two majors. Niemann will not have an opportunity to earn more rankings points until playing a few tournaments on other tours after LIV’s season concludes later this month.
Niemann, 26, is among those who are hoping the OWGR softens its stance and allows players to earn points thru LIV events beginning next year.
“I feel like the ranking system is not up to me, it’s up to them. I’m expecting that they’re going to do the right thing for golf,” Niemann said on Wednesday ahead of this week’s LIV Golf Chicago event.
He reached as high as 15th in the OWGR before signing with LIV, but Niemann added that the world rankings don’t factor into how he views himself among the game’s elite players.
“No, not really. It’s not something that I think about to tell myself in the mirror, ‘Joaco, you are No. 5,’ — no, I don’t do that. That’s not my job,” he said. “I feel like I’m just here to do my best and try to make as many birdies as possible and to make the crowd enjoy us playing golf around the world.”
Despite having won five of LIV’s first 11 events this year, he can still be caught by Spain’s Jon Rahm for the individual title over the next two events. Rahm beat Niemann by three strokes in Chicago last year, but has yet to claim an individual title in 2025.
Rahm has stayed consistent throughout the season, consistently posting top-10 results. He was among the proponents to have scores from all players count in the team competition, which Rahm’s Legion XIII leads, and said the league needs to evaluate other ways it can evolve to create world rankings points opportunities.
“There’s a process to hopefully enter those world ranking points and at least get our foot in the door,” Rahm said. “And then once we’re allowed, we can see what changes can be made to earn as many as possible, keeping the integrity of what LIV Golf is about.”
Rahm said he hasn’t been involved in conversations about further format changes, but mentioned concepts such as adding a fourth round to events and expanding the number of teams to make a cut-line more feasible
“There’s many possibilities that I can think of,” Rahm said, adding that his ideas were purely hypothetical. “There’s things we could do I think to add more world rankings points if we need it, and I’m sure there’s more that I can’t think of that the folks at OWGR and maybe (LIV CEO) Scott (O’Neil) or the front of the LIV office can probably tell us about to give us a little bit more of strength of field.”
For now, Rahm is focused on trying to track Niemann down for the individual title while having Legion XIII lock down the team title. Oh, and a little thing called the Ryder Cup, for which Rahm remains hopeful of being selected by European captain Luke Donald.
“There’s nothing I can confirm nor deny. But I think he has been texting me like he has been texting quite a few other players that are on that list of the possibility of getting picked,” Rahm said. “Luke is extremely dedicated and very well-organized as a captain, so I think there’s probably — six automatic and then six picks, right, so there’s probably about at least 10 names on top of those guys who are qualified that he’s probably constantly texting.
“I don’t think he’s actually told anybody they’re in yet because it’s too early. He’s probably waiting until the end of August through the (FedExCup) playoffs and our events to maybe start making statements like that. In my case, I think I’m just one more of those many names.”
–Field Level Media
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