Amidst the big name players continuing to tumble down the Official World Golf Rankings, LIV Golf is just hours away from its second event of the season as the Saudi backed tour heads to Tucson.
LIV has made a host of changes to the 2023 format including bringing in a qualification and relegation process at the end of the year. However, they have given no indication on if they are planning on expanding to 72 holes to be eligible for world ranking points.
Currently, LIV players are banned from the PGA Tour, while they can still play on the DP World Tour – as some have. Eight players will be eligible for next week’s WGC Matchplay in Texas as it is not a PGA Tour event with the top-64 in the OWGR qualifying.
As big names continue to slide down the rankings, putting their spots in major championships in jeopardy, Phil Mickelson wasn’t giving anything away on whether moving from 54 to 72 holes was the next step for LIV.
“Those are things we can talk about and again we have the fluidity to make changes if it’s in the best interests of the players or the league or for the fans or for the sponsors. But I don’t feel that that’s a pressing need right now, otherwise it would have been changed.
“But again, great thing about this league is its fluidity and its ability to adapt and make changes and do things quickly to make things better,” said Mickelson who appeared focused on the product going forward.
“Evolution. We’ll just simply evolve, and when we see something that can be better, we have the fluidity to make the change and make it better.
“I don’t know, I mean, there’s a lot of specifics that we could look at and say, gosh, do we need to go to 72 holes to get World (Golf) Ranking points or what do we need to do to be the best product but really it comes down to we provide the he best product to fans, to sponsors.
“And also, this is a question that LIV has been asking that I haven’t been asked in the last 32 years: How can we make this the best experience for the professionals, as well, and that’s what’s exciting for us as players to be a part of this league.”
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