LIV Golf Told Players They'd Receive World Ranking Points, Yet 3 Years Later They Still Aren't
LIV Golf began its third season this past week in Mexico, and while the circuit has undergone plenty of changes with the addition of more high-profile players over the years, one thing has remained constant, and that is LIV players still not receiving Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points.
This reality of LIV players doing nothing but falling in the OWGR rankings was never in the plans. In fact, players were promised the opposite upon joining the Saudi-backed circuit.
Carlos Ortiz, who made the jump to LIV in 2022, recently confirmed that he was told by LIV Golf officials that players would eventually get OWGR points. While there is still a chance that could come to fruition, it's a safe bet LIV didn't anticipate beginning its third season and still not being recognized by the OWGR.
"They definitely said that we were gonna get them. We haven’t got them. But I just feel that people have to recognize that there is good players here. If you’re going to have a world ranking that includes all the best players, you have to have some people included in that world ranking," Ortiz told Colt Knost on the ‘Subpar’ podcast.
"I understand that we went out of the system, and it’s gonna take time to be part of the system. But I also think that if the world ranking was to be accurate, they have to include all kinds of players. And I’m not saying we should have got them from the beginning, or something, I know there are certain rules and I knew from the beginning the consequences and the set back that we could have had and I accept them."
"I just wish we could change them and find a way we could be part of that ecosystem where we can be ranked and compete freely, not only in majors, against the other players."
LIV Golf submitted its application to be recognized by the OWGR in July 2022 before the organization took its sweet time in officially ruling against LIV's application in October 2023.
The OWGR's main gripe against LIV seems to be its lack of a pathway for players to play their way onto the circuit. Having a closed event that has no cut, featuring just 54 players each week isn't helping LIV's cause either.
Currently, Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, and Brooks Koepa are the only three LIV players ranked inside the Top 25 in the OWGR's system. Rahm and Hatton haven't fallen in the rankings yet given they only recently joined the circuit playing in just one event thus far. Koepka is still inside the Top 25 after winning the 2023 PGA Championship and finishing T-2 in the 2023 Masters.
As things stand right now, the only way LIV players can earn ranking points is based on their performances in major championships. This doesn't help the many LIV players who aren't exempt into major championships given they can't earn points and therefore have very few avenues into qualifying for future majors.
Joaquin Niemann bluntly put the situation into perspective by saying "I want to win majors, but I gotta get in first," just minutes after winning LIV's Mayakoba event this past weekend.
A point worth making here is that if (or when) LIV does begin earning OWGR points, it's not going to magically legitimize the circuit for the naysayers who are already against everything involved with the breakaway tour.
What will make those naysayers pay attention is LIV players performing well in major championships - the only four tournaments casual golf fans care about anyway - but without an opportunity to tee it up in these events given the current system, then that opportunity is impossible to come by.