Photo by Jamie Squire/LIV Golf/via Getty Images
The fate of LIV Golf’s application to the Official World Golf Ranking board will be determined soon.
Whether LIV Golf receives Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points will soon be determined.
A decision on LIV Golf’s OWGR application will be finalized soon, according to a report from the English golf website Bunkered.
“We’re coming close to a conclusion on it, and that’s all I can say,” Peter Dawson, the former R&A chair and current chair of the OWGR, said to Bunkered.
Since its inception, players on the LIV Golf circuit have not been eligible to receive OWGR points.
That has created some contentious moments among its players, as the highest-ranked LIV player is Cameron Smith. The Australian now ranks 14th in the world after being as high as third at the end of the 2022 calendar year.
Brooks Koepka, meanwhile, had hilariously fallen to 52nd at the end of 2022. He now ranks 17th after he won the 2023 PGA Championship.
Photo by Keyur Khamar/PGA TOUR via Getty Images
Brooks Koepka smiles and celebrates after winning the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill.
And Dustin Johnson, the top-ranked player in the world following his victory at the 2020 Masters, is now 114th amidst his move to LIV.
Patrick Reed and Abraham Ancer are the only other LIV golfers besides Koepka and Smith who currently rank within the top 100 golfers in the world.
Entry into the four majors depends on OWGR rankings.
For the Masters and The Open, the top 50 players in the OWGR receive invitations to compete. The top 60 players are granted entry into the U.S. Open, while the top 100 can play in the PGA Championship.
But, since LIV Golf events do not award OWGR points, LIV players can only receive world-ranking points when playing in the four majors.
Hence, Koepka and Smith ranking so highly, as they each won a major championship within the last two years.
Yet, if the OWGR denies LIV Golf world ranking points, many players will not have access to the majors in 2024 and beyond. That has created a bit of a catch-22.
“We have to be fair to everybody, not just the new guys but the other tours as well,” Dawson said.
LIV Golf features 54-hole events, shotgun starts, and limited field sizes. It is quite different when compared to other tours around the world.
Photo by Ross Kinnaird/R&A/R&A via Getty Images
Peter Dawson, former chair of the R&A, poses with Phil Mickelson, who won the 2013 Open Championship, at Royal Liverpool prior to the 143rd Open.
“We’ve had a lot of work to do with the rankings because the LIV format and some of the qualification criteria are very different to other tours that are part of the ranking,” Dawson noted.
The application process to gain OWGR eligibility for new tours takes about a year or so to complete, says the OWGR board.
The end of that process seems to be ending, and a decision could be made very soon.
Perhaps it will come within the next couple of weeks, after the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland.
Shockingly, Yasir al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, is playing in the event as an amateur and is paired with LIV golfer Peter Uihlein.
Al-Rumayyan played a practice round with R&A CEO Martin Slumbers and will play at Carnoustie Golf Links on Friday with Dawson, who is also playing in this event alongside young South African Jayden Schaper.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
