Don’t call it a comeback!
On Tuesday afternoon, LIV Golf announced it would move all events to 72 holes effective immediately, bringing the rival league in line with the competitive standard in the rest of golf. The move clears a potential obstruction from the track as the league seeks to gain access to the track Official World Golf Ranking (or OWGR), providing LIV players with access to the all-powerful world ranking points used to determine major championship eligibility.
Although the move to 72 holes was contemplated and rumored, it still came as a shock to the golf world on Tuesday. An important part of LIV’s initial sell to golf was its 54-hole events, which league officials said reduced costs and simplified the viewing experience. Indeed, even LIV’s name was tied to its 54-hole identity, originating from the Roman numeral for “54”. (LIV also tied No. 54 with a “perfect” golf score — 18 birdies on a par-72 course.)
“We’ll continue to have that conversation going forward,” said former LIV CEO Greg Norman about the possibility of a 72-hole shift in the summer of 2024. “But we sit down and say, what value do we get from telecasting Thursday? How do we build on that in the future?”
As radical as LIV’s thinking may have been, no amount of innovation could help the league overcome two hard truths: LIV needed OWGR status to provide a path to the acceptance of the great championshipand major championship qualification was necessary to meaningfully steal talent or market share from the PGA Tour and DP World Tours. (Previously, the only paths for an LIV player to the majors were an exemption from previous major championship success, a special exemption, or qualification.)
OWGR’s position over LIV had remained stable since the time of the league’s first abandoned application: LIV was very much a “closed shop” and the limits of its competitions (no cuts, smaller courses, 54 holes) made it difficult to distribute ranking points evenly.
LIV players fought back against this categorization, arguing that the duration of the competition had no bearing on its competitive importance – some of them argued ANTI the 72-hole standard that has been used to define golf tournaments for most of golf’s history.
“It’s just ridiculous to me, this arbitrary number of 72,” said Talor Gooch, one of the players most affected by the lack of world ranking points in the league, around the time of LIV’s creation. “Why isn’t it 90? Why isn’t it 108? We just decided to make that number, for what reason?”
Apparently, the current leadership of LIV – led by CEO Scott O’Neill – felt that the potential advantage of major championship acceptance was more enticing than the branding issues. The decision to move to 72 holes should accelerate the league’s application for OWGR eligibility under new president Trevor Immelman, providing LIV with the kernel that has proved elusive from the start: A path for LIV players to play their way to the majors.
