REED, LEISHMAN, BLAND MAKE BIGGEST POINTS MOVES IN LONDON

Consequently, they also made the biggest moves up the season-long Individual Champion points standings.

Reed and Leishman tied for second on the traditional leaderboard behind London winner Cameron Smith at Centurion Club. With Reed shooting the better final-round score, he claimed the tiebreaker for second-place points (worth 30 points) while Leishman took third place (worth 24 points). That moved the Aussie from 37th to 26th in the points – just outside the top 24 in the Lock Zone who will be guaranteed spots in next season’s LIV Golf League.

The 11-place improvement by Leishman was the biggest jump by any player last week.

For Leishman, it was not only his best result of the season but his best performance in his 13 regular-season starts since joining LIV Golf.

Bland finished in a five-way tie for sixth on the regular leaderboard but grabbed the sixth spot worth 14 points by claiming all the tiebreakers. That moved him from 41st to 32nd in the points standings, a nine-spot improvement.

Reed moved from 11th to 4th in the points standings behind the top three of Talor Gooch, Cameron Smith and Brooks Koepka. Reed is the highest-earning points producer without benefit of an individual win this season; the second place was also his best result of the year.

In last year’s Individual Champion race during the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational Series, Reed finished the season tied for second in points behind overall winner Dustin Johnson. But he lost tiebreakers to Branden Grace and Peter Uihlein and finished fourth in points – just outside the top three who earned individual bonuses.

Reed’s 4Aces teammate, Pat Perez, enhanced his position inside the top 24 by claiming seventh-place points in London. He moved from 23rd to 19th in the standings.

Smith moved from third to second in points with his win in London, switching spots with Koepka.

As for the players in the Drop Zone ­­­– those who finish 45th or below in points at the end of the regular season and do not fit one of the qualifiers for exemption, such as team captaincy – there were no changes after London.

The Cleeks’ Bernd Wiesberger (46th), Smash GC’s Chase Koepka (47th), HyFlyers GC’s James Piot (49th) and Iron Heads GC’s Sihwan Kim (50th) are in danger of automatic relegation unless they improve their positions by the end of the regular season. None of those four acquired points in London, and Chase Koepka is the only one who has earned a point this season (one point for finishing 24th in Adelaide, the tournament in which he recorded a hole-in-one at the Watering Hole).

Only the top 24 players at each tournament receive points for the season-long race.

LIV Golf London was the ninth tournament of the 2023 LIV Golf League season. Four regular-season tournaments remain, starting with next month’s LIV Golf Greenbrier, Aug. 4-6, and ending with LIV Golf Jeddah, Oct. 13-15. After the conclusion of the regular season, the Team Championship will be held Oct 20-22 in Miami.

BIGGEST POINTS MOVERS IN LONDON

Click here for a full look at the season-long standings.