The Official World Golf Rankings made a major ruling regarding LIV Golf. The governing body over golf rankings voted unanimously not to award world-ranking points to golfers for their finishes in LIV Golf League tournaments.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that the OWGR ruled against LIV Golf. They made it clear from the get-go when LIV Golf was started that they had no intentions of ranking golfers in that league.
LIV golfers aren’t shocked either and think that the rankings aren’t important anymore, at least not to them.
“I think it is almost obsolete now,” Cameron Smith told reporters Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, where LIV Golf will play its final regular-season event at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club beginning Friday. “We’ve got some guys out here who are playing some of the best golf in the world and they’re outside the top 100, 200 in the world. It’s pretty ridiculous.”
Despite what Smith said, however, rankings still can determine which golfers can or cannot play in some PGA events including majors. Some popular golfers have been literally dropped out of the rankings or rankings have dropped because they are no longer part of the PGA Tour.
Smith is one of them who, under normal circumstances, would be ranked the No. 2 golfer in the world, instead, he is 15th. Dustin Johnson also received the snub treatment by OWGR and he agrees with Smith.
“I feel like you can’t really use the world ranking system anymore,” Johnson said. “That’s my take on it. Hard to use the world ranking system if you’re excluding 48 guys that are good players. The rankings are skewed. It doesn’t really affect me as it does some of the other guys. I want the points for the other guys.”
Yet despite that, OWGR chairman Peter Dawson sent a letter to LIV Golf to explain their stance. Their main concern is about the lack of turnover among players in LIV Golf and the limited pathways for other players to join.
{ESPN}
