The fifth season of LIV Golf kicked off this week under the lights in Saudi Arabia. But the focus has not been on golf.
The week started with additional questions about Brooks Koepka departures and Patrick Reed. While the response to the emergence of two marquee names highlighted the league’s new realitysomething else sucked up all the oxygen in the breakaway league season opener.
On Tuesday, the official World Golf Ranking board announced that he had accepted LIV’s application for membership and that the league will start earning points this week in Riyadh. However, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for the Saudi-backed league. While LIV will receive points starting this week, the OWGR board noted that points will be limited to top 10 finishes and ties.
“This has been an incredibly complex and challenging process and one that we have devoted a great deal of time and energy to resolving in the seven months since LIV Golf submitted their application,” OWGR Chairman Trevor Immelman said in a statement. “We fully understood the need to rank the best men’s players in the world, but at the same time we had to find a way to do so that was on par with the thousands of other players competing in other tournaments that operate with established meritocratic paths.”
The OWGR board’s decision has played out during the LIV season opener as players and CEO Scott O’Neil grapple with its implications.
O’Neil spoke to Al Arabiya English during LIV Riyadh and tried to analyze a decision that opens a path to major championship acceptance for LIV players but, in their eyes, is still not good enough.
“Can you imagine the PGA (Tour) committee, the head of the PD World Tour, and so, from our perspective, what a huge vote of confidence for them to say, ‘Okay, we’ll give you points,'” O’Neil said.
“Now, on the other hand, it’s a little bit unprecedented. You know, in every other event that they have in the hundreds of tournaments that they sanction, if there’s no cuts, only 15 percent of the field doesn’t score. In our case, it’s 82 percent of the field. So that didn’t feel great, you know. To actually rank and be recognized, where we really should be, which I think is the biggest, deepest, most strength talented, strongest field, international golf in the world.”
Jon Rahm echoed O’Neil’s sentiment, but believes LIV isn’t getting the respect it deserves, given the talent in the league.
“Yeah, it’s great that we’re getting points,” Rahm said on the “LIV Golf” broadcast. “It’s great that we’re getting to know each other in some way.
“That being said, I don’t like how we’re not treated the same as every other tournament. It seems like the rules that have been in place don’t apply to us, with only ten of us getting points. It doesn’t seem fair. Small fields out there all year, their players get full points.”
Talor Gooch, who has been with LIV since its inception, believes the league is still being treated unfairly because of its status as a disruptor in professional golf.
“I don’t think the right thing has been done, which is no different than what we’ve experienced here at LIV for the last four or five seasons now,” Gooch said. “It’s going to be interesting to see how it develops. But I think anybody who says the right thing was done and the right thing was done, I don’t think they’re in tune with the reality of things.”
However, another original member of LIV Golf took a different view of the OWGR’s decision.
Peter Uihlein was quick to compare LIV’s points tally against the DP World Tour’s Qatar Masters this week and sees it as a clear step towards further legitimacy for the league.
“I might be one of the few who like it,” he said. “We have more world ranking points today than we did yesterday. I saw the winner get 23 points this week. In Qatar, he gets 20. In my moment, we’re the second best tournament in the world right now. Obviously, there are things that maybe need to be worked out with the top ten or whatever, but the reality is that I have more points today than we did yesterday.”
like Chris Solomon of No Laying Up pointed out in Xthe player who finishes sixth at LIV Riyadh will receive the same number of points as the player who finishes 20th at this week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open. Given the size of the fields and the quality of players on each, LIV’s apparently did very well.
Elivis Smylie won in his LIV debut, getting 23.03580 predicted OWGR points for first place. Bryson DeChambeau, meanwhile, finished T17, leaving Saudi Arabia without an OWGR boost and with questions about his future at LIV still up in the air as the league heads to Australia.
