The Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Tour has hit out at what it regards as victimisation from these presiding over the game’s world rankings course of, regardless of seeing their wait of practically 4 years for recognition by the system lastly finish.
It was confirmed on Tuesday that these competing in LIV tournaments will obtain official world golf rating factors however solely when ending within the prime 10. An announcement from the OWGR board stated this “recognises there are a variety of areas the place LIV Golf doesn’t meet the eligibility requirements set out”.
Since LIV competitors began in 2022, the OWGR has not given any reward to these performing in that area. This has led to beforehand outstanding golfers tumbling down the rankings; Cameron Smith is now 221st, Sergio García 363rd and Dustin Johnson 662nd. Not proud of an obvious victory of types, LIV took intention on the OWGR with an announcement of its personal: “We acknowledge this lengthy overdue second of recognition, which affirms the basic precept that efficiency on the course ought to matter, no matter the place the competitors takes place.
“Nonetheless, this end result is unprecedented. Underneath these guidelines, a participant ending eleventh in a LIV Golf occasion is handled the identical as a participant ending 57th. Limiting factors to solely the top-10 finishers disproportionately harms gamers who persistently carry out at a excessive degree however end simply outdoors that threshold, in addition to rising expertise working to ascertain themselves on the world stage – exactly the gamers a good and meritocratic rating system is designed to recognise.
“No different aggressive tour or league in OWGR historical past has been subjected to such a restriction. We count on that is merely a primary step towards a construction that absolutely and pretty serves the gamers, the followers, and the way forward for the game. We entered this course of in good religion and can proceed to advocate for a rating system that displays efficiency over affiliation. The sport deserves transparency. The followers deserve credibility. And the gamers deserve a system that treats them equally.”
LIV’s 2026 season begins towards a troubled backdrop after Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed selected to exit. Each will make returns to the PGA Tour.
Increasing on their course of, the OWGR stated: “The board’s overriding intention was to establish an equitable approach of rating the very best males’s gamers on the planet, together with the highest performing gamers in LIV Golf, whereas taking account of the eligibility requirements that LIV Golf doesn’t at the moment meet and the truth that it operates in a different way from different ranked excursions in various respects.
“This consists of LIV Golf’s common discipline dimension of 57 for 2026 versus the minimal of 75 set out in OWGR Laws; solely no-cut occasions; the restrictive pathways to hitch LIV Golf with two spots stuffed from the Asian Tour’s Worldwide Sequence and three from a ‘closed’ promotions occasion which doesn’t offset the turnover of gamers exiting the league; self-selection of gamers with gamers being recruited fairly than incomes their place on the tour in lots of circumstances and, in latest days, the addition/elimination of gamers to/from groups based mostly on their nationality fairly than for meritocratic causes.”
The OWGR added it is going to “proceed to guage” LIV’s aggressive standing.
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