By Olle Nordberg

With lucrative events such as the World Golf Championships,  Majors and the Players Championship looming, players are all vying to boost their rankings on the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR).

Thai star Kiradech Aphibarnrat, who sits in 36th place on the OWGR following his tied-third place finish in Mexico, has sealed his tickets to all the WGCs and Majors this year.

Last week’s WGC Mexico Championship saw several Asian Tour members competing. Kiradech enjoyed a great week in the $10 million event where he picked up 22.56 valuable OWGR points to move up to nine rungs to 36th place.

• Justin Harding – Currently number 71 on the OWGR and with 3 top 11 finishes in his last 4 events is very close to the Top 64 Available Players needed to qualify for the Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas in the end of March. The cutoff date is March 18, but a good finish in the Oman Open this week on the European Tour could put him inside this number. The US PGA Championship at Bethpage Black in New York on May 16-19 will usually give a Special Exemption to players ranked within the OWGR Top 100, and Harding earned one of these spots last year after winning the Bank BRI Indonesia Open and King’s Cup in consecutive events in 2018.
• Jazz Janewattananond – Now in 78th place on the OWGR and will need a great event at this week’s New Zealand Open to get inside the Top 64. A win would most likely be enough to put him inside this number and depending on how far the top 64 available spots drop down possibly also a solo second. Jazz is also currently in line for one of the Special Exemption spots into the US PGA Championship.

For both players, the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia April 11-14 is also within reach, although an even tougher task. Being inside the Top 50 on the OWGR as of March 31 would land them with an invitation to Augusta and follow in Shubhankar Sharma’s footsteps from last year following his win at the Maybank Championship.