After nearly four years of posturing for inclusion in the Official World Golf Rankings, LIV finally has access to the system that serves as the gatekeeper for major qualification.
It’s a win they needed—but it still kind of feels like a loss.
As part of the OWGR’s decision, only the top 10 finishers in LIV events will receive points. Those outside the top 10 are earning as many ranking points as anyone reading this (well, unless a pro golfer is reading this).
LIV’s 57-man fields are treated in the same way small-field events are handled from a rankings standpoint.
The result? The winner of this week’s LIV Golf event in Saudi Arabia is projected to earn about 23 world-ranking points, which is less than half of what winners in PGA Tour full-field events receive.
For context, Justin Rose just earned 58 points for his victory at the Farmers Insurance Open, which is not even a signature event (a signature event winner earns 66 points).
And, more importantly, the remaining points are evenly distributed at Tour events. That is not the case on LIV.
The effect is that Patrick Rodgers earned more points (18) for his third-place finish at the Sony Open than a LIV player will get for finishing second (13).
The OWGR finally relented
If you’re a regular around here, you know my stance on the LIV-OWGR debate.
The OWGR had long-standing criteria for which tours earned points. That criteria included reasonable tour qualification/loss of membership, events being 72 holes, larger field sizes, 36-hole cuts and so on.
LIV formed and basically demanded points when it met very little of the criteria—the most damning one being that it arbitrarily invited players and handed out contracts, creating a closed-loop system.
The league has recently made several changes to help their cause, including switching to 72-hole tournaments and opening larger qualification/relegation pathways.
In a news release Tuesday, the OWGR noted that LIV Golf events don’t meet its standards for field sizes of at least 75 golfers; they’re strictly no-cut events; and there are restrictive pathways that allowed two golfers from the Asian Tour’s International Series and three from a “closed” promotions event to join the league this year.
The OWGR even admitted that LIV still had an issue with “self-selection of players with players being recruited rather than earning their place on the tour in many cases and, in recent days, the addition/removal of players to/from teams based on their nationality rather than for meritocratic reasons.”
So why did the OWGR allow LIV access to points?
On one hand, the OWGR had become obsolete as a ranking tool because so many notable players were not included.
“We fully recognized the need to rank the top men’s players in the world but at the same time had to find a way of doing so that was equitable to the thousands of other players competing on other tours that operate with established meritocratic pathways,” the statement said.
And, on the other hand, the PGA Tour itself has been pushing more in the direction of limited-field, no-cut events that prop up their stars. Events like the Hero World Challenge—where a select handful of Tiger’s buddies get arbitrary access to world ranking points—are also hard to rationalize.
The TLDR is that this is a compromise. The OWGR feels like it is treating LIV fairly.
But LIV doesn’t feel like this is fair
LIV announced their own statement saying they appreciate the new access to the OWGR but feel like it doesn’t properly reward the level of golf being played on their league.
“This outcome is unprecedented,” a LIV statement said. “Under these rules, a player finishing 11th in a LIV Golf event is treated the same as a player finishing 57th. Limiting points to only the top 10 finishers disproportionately harms players who consistently perform at a high level but finish just outside that threshold, as well as emerging talent working to establish themselves on the world stage—precisely the players a fair and meritocratic ranking system is designed to recognize.
“No other competitive tour or league in OWGR history has been subjected to such a restriction. We expect this is merely a first step toward a structure that fully and fairly serves the players, the fans, and the future of the sport.”
This is, of course, an incredible false equivalency being made by LIV.
No other tour has ever signed players to contracts—players who might be included on name recognition rather than merit—and then demanded all its participants be rewarded.
They should be happy they have reached this stage, with the opportunity for more points in the future.
At the same time, this move won’t change much
While it’s true LIV players will have improved access to the majors, it’s unlikely that this OWGR half-measure has a seismic impact.
LIV’s top players are already qualified for the majors. And every single player who needs the points is buried pretty far down the list on the current OWGR, meaning that it will take exceptional play to make a real move up the rankings.
Also, according to Data Golf (which has been accounting for all pro golf played), only 10 of the top 100 players in the world are on LIV.
There are not exactly a ton of players banging on the door to use these world ranking points in meaningful ways.
To be fair, there will be some players who are helped by this. However, the pathway for Tour players to earn points is still so much easier.
I don’t anticipate any top players basing their Tour or LIV decisions on this move.
What are your thoughts? Let me know below in the comments.
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