LIV Golf Promised Its Players World Ranking Points—They Still Don't Have Them
The LIV Golf League’s inability to get world ranking points continues to be a source of consternation among players, highlighted by Joaquin Niemann’s post-victory remarks on Sunday in which he said "I want to win majors, but I gotta get in first!"
Niemann, 25, from Chile, has played 12 consecutive major championships but is looking at missing the Masters this year because he is well outside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking and won’t have enough ranking-point events to try and qualify.
The issue took another turn Tuesday when Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz suggested on Golf Magazine's Subpar podcast with Colt Knost that he had been told prior to signing with LIV Golf to expect OWGR points.
Carlos Ortiz, who does not receive Official World Golf Ranking points from LIV Golf events, is ranked 1,229th in the world.
Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire
Knost: "Were you told at the start that eventually you’d get world ranking points or do you think you should get them due to the quality of players over there?"
Ortiz: "I think it’s both. They definitely said that we were gonna get them. We haven’t got them. But I just feel that people have to recognize that there is good players here. If you’re going to have a world ranking that includes all the best players, you have to have some people included in that world ranking.
"I understand that we went out of the system, and it’s gonna take time to be part of the system. But I also think that if the world ranking was to be accurate, they have to include all kinds of players. And I’m not saying we should have got them from the beginning, or something, I know there are certain rules and I knew from the beginning the consequences and the set back that we could have had and I accept them.
"I just wish we could change them and find a way we could be part of that ecosystem where we can be ranked and compete freely, not only in majors, against the other players. I just think there’s a way, there’s definitely enough proof that we have a legitimate tour, where there’s good players and we should get rankings.
“Because at the end of the day why we’re not getting our world ranking is you need to prove certain years or certain time that you have a legitimate tour. I think it’s already proven we have a legitimate tour. That’s my opinion ... I definitely knew the consequences and the reason for going not getting world ranking points was part of them."
LIV Golf has maintained almost from the start that the caliber of its players should warrant that the league receive world ranking points, regardless of other deficiencies.
It submitted its formal application in July 2022 and—while there were conversations back and forth at times over the following 18 months—the OWGR did not officially rule against LIV Golf receiving points until last October.
The main reason cited was the lack of player pathways in and out of the league as well as the closed field from week to week. LIV Golf did not alter its format heading into 2023 other than to add a 13th team and to have two individual players each week.
"We are not at war with them," OWGR chairman Peter Dawson said in an interview with the AP at the time the denial was announced. "This decision not to make them eligible is not political. It is entirely technical. LIV players are self-evidently good enough to be ranked. They’re just not playing in a format where they can be ranked equitably with the other 24 tours and thousands of players to compete on them."
The OWGR board is comprised of representatives from each of the four major championships and well as PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley and Keith Waters of the International Federation of PGA Tours. Those three recused themselves from the LIV Golf decision to avoid a conflict of interest.
Dawson told the AP that certain criteria such as 36-hole cuts and having less than a 75-player average field size were not deal breakers.
It was more the set fields from week to week. For now, there is no weekly qualifying for LIV Golf events. The league relegated the bottom four players—who are not under contract—following last season and conducted a Promotions Event to allow access to three players. Andy Ogletree, who won the International Series Order of Merit, got another spot.
Players such as Dustin Johnson (now 218th in the world) and Bryson DeChambeau (167th) have seen their world ranking plummet. Cam Smith, who won the 2022 British Open, and Brooks Koepka, who won the PGA Championship last year, have dropped to 35th and 25th respectively. LIV has just nine players ranked among the top 100, including newcomers Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Adrian Meronk and Lucas Herbert.
"Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, of course they should be in the ranking," Dawson said last year. "We need to find a way to get that done. I hope that LIV can find a solution—not so much their format; that can be dealt with through a mathematical formula—but the qualification and relegation.”
