LIV Golf’s Latest Stunt With World Rankings is Farcical
There is no such thing as a quiet week in the golf world these days.
The headlines have been dominated by LIV Golf and it’s attempted hostile takeover of professional golf.
Amongst the numerous speed bumps along the way for LIV Golf has been Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points. The OWGR is the central body in golf that awards world ranking points to players. Points are awarded based on a player’s position in individual tournaments and rankings are calculated accordingly. OWGR is the main criteria in which the world’s top players qualify for golf’s four major championships.
LIV Golf have an unusual structure to their tournaments. They are invite-only, have only 48 players in the field and have no cut. Thus, LIV Golf events are not eligible for world ranking points.
This is the biggest golf-related issue for those players who have defected to LIV. Since joining LIV in June, Dustin Johnson has not earned a single world ranking point outside of the majors. Slowly but surely, LIV’s star men are sliding further and further down the world rankings.
LIV, as usual, has played the victim in this scenario. Rhetoric has largely followed the script of how the ‘golf establishment’ is colluding against the breakout tour.
The brains at LIV believed they had found a loophole in which the tour would solve their OWGR problem. On Thursday, CEO Greg Norman announced a ‘strategic alliance’ with the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Tour.
The alliance would see LIV events be sanctioned by the third-tier circuit, which has been recognised by the OWGR since 2016. Therefore, LIV players would be eligible for world rankings points.
Problem solved, right? Of course not. The OWGR announced on Friday that LIV Golf events for the remainder of the year would not be receiving points due to “significant changes to the MENA Tour’s membership”, while confirming a review of the changes to the tour is now underway.
There is a genuine, good faith conversation to be had with OWGR and LIV. For example, if Dustin Johnson falls to 50th in the world rankings, it is not an accurate representation of the world rankings in the game of golf. The counter argument is Dustin Johnson chose to play on an unranked tour with unranked events.
Claiming that LIV’s players should get ranking points is farcical. It is an easy case to make, but easily picked apart.
LIV golf fields have a sizeable skill gap between top to bottom. James Piot for example, an early LIV signing to make up the numbers, has never made a professional cut. He has broken 70 only once in his professional career. How is OWGR going to fairly award points to Piot playing in a no-cut, 48-man, 54-hole event in comparison to someone playing in a 156-man PGA Tour qualifying event?
LIV supporters give the impression this is a snide decision by OWGR not to award points to LIV events. This is simply not the case.
LIV are not awarded points because their tour does not fit the criteria OWGR have clearly laid out for decades. If LIV made changes to fit the criteria in relation to qualification, field size and cuts, they should (and will) get points.
For now, it’s clear LIV has little interest in catering to these rules, and yet will continue to cry wolf. The MENA loophole was never going to work, and those in charge at LIV will have known this. The cynic in me wonders whether this stunt was done to cause fake uproar and gather further ammo for future lawsuits.