Anthony Kim Eyes Major Starts After Seismic LIV Adelaide Win
anthony kim stunned the golf world with a breakthrough victory at the 2026 LIV Golf Adelaide event, his first Tour-level win in 16 years. The triumph catapulted him up the Official World Golf Ranking and created plausible routes into multiple 2026 major championships — a development made possible by recent changes to ranking rules and exemption criteria.
How the Adelaide win reshaped his world ranking
Kim’s Adelaide victory was notable not only for the opponents he outplayed but for its immediate impact on his world standing. The win vaulted him from 847th to 203rd in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), a leap that dramatically improved his major-championship prospects. The movement came after the OWGR began awarding points to the top-10 finishers in LIV events for the first time in 2026, making LIV performance relevant to major qualification paths.
Prior to this policy shift, Kim’s comeback over the last two years had produced limited tangible progress in the global pecking order. The new points allocation changes mean a strong stretch of results on the LIV schedule can now translate into meaningful climbs in the rankings. With only a handful of LIV tournaments remaining before some key major cutoffs, each event presents a high-stakes opportunity for Kim to close the gap toward major eligibility.
Paths into the four majors and what Kim needs
The route into Augusta National for the 2026 Masters (April 9–12, 2026 ET) remains the most stringent for Kim. The most reliable path is finishing inside the OWGR top 50 by the entry deadline on April 6. While his Adelaide win erased hundreds of ranking spots, Kim still faces a steep climb of roughly 153 places in a short window. That almost certainly requires another victory or two on the LIV calendar before the Masters cutoff.
The PGA Championship offers a slightly more forgiving scenario. Historically, invitations tied to world ranking have extended to players inside roughly the top 100, which gives Kim more breathing room and additional weeks to move up the list before Aronimink hosts the field in May.
The U. S. Open presents multiple avenues. One conventional route is securing a top-60 OWGR position by the week of May 18, 2026 ET. Crucially for Kim, there is also a LIV-specific exemption now in place: the top LIV player not otherwise exempt who sits inside the top three of the LIV Individual standings as of May 18, 2026 will receive a special exemption into the U. S. Open. Following Adelaide, Kim sits second in the LIV Individual standings, putting him in a prime spot to claim that exemption so long as players ahead of him are already exempt other criteria.
Finally, the Open Championship remains a possibility through the world ranking pathway as well, with the same OWGR boosts from LIV results potentially opening the door to links golf later in the summer.
What comes next for Kim and the wider implications
With his LIV Adelaide title as a springboard, Kim’s immediate mandate is simple: convert momentum into consistent, high finishes — ideally more wins — to continue upward in the OWGR and maintain a top position in the LIV Individual standings. Practically speaking, that likely means aggressive scheduling for the remaining LIV events before the Masters and steady play into May for the U. S. Open and PGA Championship windows.
Beyond Kim’s personal comeback narrative, his situation underscores how rule changes have reshaped the professional landscape. The integration of LIV results into world ranking calculations has created new career pathways for players returning to form or seeking to re-enter the major championship scene. For anthony kim, that convergence of timing, performance and regulation offers perhaps the clearest shot in years at returning to the biggest stages in golf.
