Joaquin Niemann is one of golf's most in-form players right now, but getting a true idea of where he ranks in the men's game is tricky due to LIV Golf's lack of sanctioning by the Official World Golf Ranking.
Niemann has won twice in three LIV Golf starts this year but has actually dropped in the OWGR each time, now ranking 76th having been as high as 15th in the list in early 2022.
The Chilean has earned points for various appearances on the DP World Tour and Asian Tour recently, including for his victory at the Australian Open in December. However, he'll only be earning OWGR points outside of LIV Golf for the foreseeable future after it was revealed that Greg Norman's tour has withdrawn its application.
Due to the lack of world ranking points given to LIV Golf, other systems have emerged or grown in relevance as golf fans look for a clearer of picture of how the world's best players stack up.
For this article, we looked at three other rankings - The Universal World Golf Rankings, Data Golf and the Sports Illustrated World Golf Rankings.
Niemann's highest ranking comes with Data Golf, where he sits 12th in the list as LIV Golf's second-highest ranked player behind Jon Rahm in 4th-place. Niemann climbed six spots with his LIV Jeddah win to overtake Tyrrell Hatton into second-place on the 54-hole tour.
Data Golf's rankings "are determined by averaging the field-strength adjusted scores of each golfer across professional and amateur tournaments, with more recent rounds receiving more weight."
Niemann's second-best ranking comes in The Universal World Golf Rankings, where he is 17th. He is the fifth-highest ranked LIV Golfer in TUGR behind Rahm, Hatton, Bryson DeChambeau and Talor Gooch.
The 25-year-old climbed 18 spots in TUGR this week, which describes itself as "the world's most accurate, understandable, all-inclusive, and unbiased golf rankings."
The Torque GC captain, who shot 59 last month in his Mayakoba victory, moved up 19 spots to 22nd in Sports Illustrated's own rankings, which is another that gives points to LIV Golf. He is the fifth-highest LIV player after Brooks Koepka, Rahm, DeChambeau and Gooch.
The OWGR is still the only ranking system that is recognized by the men's Majors, but luckily for Niemann he received a special invitation into The Masters and revealed he had also been invited into the PGA Championship. His Australian Open win got him into The Open, but he's going to need to go through qualifying for the US Open unless he has good results in the year's first two Majors as only the top-60 in the OWGR make the field.
Joaquin Niemann rankings:
- Official World Golf Ranking: 76th
- The Universal Golf Rankings: 17th
- Data Golf: 12th
- Sports Illustrated World Golf Rankings: 22nd
