Despite being announced on the same morning, the year-end news from LIV Golf and the Official World Golf Ranking may seem unrelated. The LIV will expand its field from 54 to 57 players in 2026 and the OWGR will now offer discounted world ranking points for events that end in fewer than 72 holes.
The decisions, however, are at least partially tied because LIV Golf has its eyes on world ranking points now more than ever. And OWGR continues to warm to this prospect.
“Since late June, the Board of Directors has attempted to fully evaluate the LIV Golf application,” said Trevor Immelman, OWGR chairman, in a press release. “We remain committed to the mission of the OWGR, which seeks to honor the meritocracy woven into the professional game.
“As such, discussions have been regular and remain ongoing. To be clear, progress has been made, but there is no decision to share at this time. We will continue to work closely with LIV Golf as it continues to develop to ensure that its application is treated with fairness, integrity and consistency, as previously stated.”
And while this may mean that LIV begins its 2026 year without any change in its point status, that “progress” is not insignificant. The league decided this offseason for him moved his events to 72 holesbringing it in line with the vast majority of pro tournaments that receive OWGR points. It has also expanded access to its $25 million events.
LIV’s Dec. 30 announcement focused on adding three additional “wild card” spots to its fields, all coming from next month LIV Golf Promotions event held in Florida. Eighty contestants will be narrowed down to three, each of whom will earn a full season of starts, playing exclusively for themselves, not as members of an LIV franchise.
While the list of names in the Promotions field is modest, the existence of those paths in the once very closed circuit signals another way in which LIV is leaning in OWGR’s direction. One of the main tenets of OWGR’s meritocratic policies is to ensure that the tournaments it hosts have pathways for golfers around the world.
Will it be enough for LIV to get OWGR points soon? The league spent most of 2025 believing it would get points by the end of the year, which it won’t. That said, OWGR has shown itself capable of change, however traditional and slow to adapt it may be. On Tuesday morning it announced that scheduled 54-hole tournaments will receive 75% of the world ranking points awarded for 72-hole events and that any event shortened to 54 holes or 36 holes – from an originally scheduled 72 – will receive 75% and 50% of the original amount of points.
This move will protect the standings from excessive reward events shortened by weather, for example, such as Wyndham Clark’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am finished after 54 holes. Clark received the full amount of points he would have normally received during a 72-hole event at Pebble Beach, but not under the revised policy.
The fix, of course, can be seen independently of LIV Golf, but look no further than the second quote from the press release from Immelman:
