With three of the richest events remaining on the Asian Tour this season, starting with this week’s US$2 million Link Hong Kong Open, followed by the US$2.5 million International Series Qatar and the US$5 million PIF Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers, the Asian Tour Order of Merit and The International Series Rankings are still up for grabs – although quite different scenarios are necessary to topple John Catlin who leads both.

The American currently has a commanding lead on the Merit list with 3,030.06 points, ahead of Richard T. Lee from Canada, who is second with 1,775.29.

Lee is also second on the Rankings, which Catlin leads with 900.58 points to Lee’s 660.64.

On the Merit list Catlin is going to be extremely hard to catch; it requires a superhuman effort by one of his pursuers while he starts missing cut, an extremely unlikely scenario.

Anyone down to 28th could technically surpass Catlin’s points but it would take winning all three events.

Richard T. Lee. Picture by Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour.

However, it would be his closest challengers Lee, Chinese Taipei’s Lee Chieh-po in third on 1,490.73 points, Ben Campbell from New Zealand, fourth with 1312.72, Thai Suteepat Prateeptienchai, in fifth with 1,309.11, and American M.J. Maguire, who is sixth with 1,246.18 points, that have the best chance, even if slim, of catching Catlin.

With a win this week at Hong Kong Golf Club worth 787.5 points none of Catlin’s pursuers will be able to pass him, and only the two Lee’s have a chance to do so with a win in both Hong Kong and Qatar. This scenario would get the Canadian Lee to 3,350.29 points and his Chinese Taipei namesake to 3,065.63 while also requiring that Catlin does not earn any points in the two events.

The final and richest event of the season, the PIF Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers, will have 1,050 points going to the winner and 570 for a solo second place, but with the world-class field assembled at Riyadh Golf Club the points there will be hard earned.

Even with two consecutive wins in the next two events plus a solo second in Riyadh in the season ending event, only then would Suteepat and Maguire be added to the list of players that could potentially overtake Catlin.

Lee Chieh-po. Picture courtesy of Taiwan PGA.

The International Series Rankings race is an all-together different story as there is still plenty to be decided before that automatic spot on the LIV Golf League 2025 roster is confirmed.

The Link Hong Kong Open offers a prize breakdown of 360, 220 and 126 points for the top three places, similar to the seven previous tournaments on The International Series.

However, with the ensuing events in Qatar and Saudi Arabia have significantly more weighting.

First prize at Qatar will land the winner 450 points, with 275 and 157.50 for second and third place. In Saudi, the winner will get 1,000 points with 525 for runner up, 300 for third, 235 for fourth and 200 points for fifth.

In effect, the rankings race is alive until the final event of the season, with the top six of Catlin (900.58), Lee (660.64), Uihlein (621.10), Campbell (597.63), Lee Chieh-Po (572.52) and Maguire (509.75) all technically still in it.

However, a win for Catlin in Hong Kong or Qatar would effectively end the contest if his closest challengers failed to secure any significant points.

Lastly, let’s not forget the battle for a spot inside the top 65 on the Merit list in progress for players trying to secure their playing rights for next season.

Currently it’s Indonesia’s Jonathan Wijono who sits in 65^th place with 200.4 points, but with big points on offer in all three remaining events this could go up considerably.

With a short field of only 120 players in next week’s International Series Qatar due to daylight, this week’s Link Hong Kong Open could be the last chance for many players to earn points to keep their cards.