It’s now almost three years since LIV’s arrival and the league remains on the outside looking in where Official World Golf Rankings points are concerned.
Whatever your opinion on LIV as a product and the effect that it’s had on men’s professional golf in general, there’s no denying that some of the best players in the world play the majority of their golf on the circuit.
Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Joaquin Niemann and Cameron Smith would all be on just about everybody’s shortlist when it comes to compiling a list of the top 15 or 20 players in the world, and nobody in their right mind wouldn’t have jotted Jon Rahm’s name down by the time they’ve completed their top fives.
Speaking before the Hero Dubai Desert Classic where he’s due to make his first appearance at the Emirates Course, Rahm was asked his opinion – and not for the first time – about LIV’s continued snub by the OWGR.
“I think at this point to not give LIV World Ranking points and the credibility it deserves, I think is wrong,” Rahm said.
“Listen, I understand we’ve all made a decision and it’s not as easy as it sounds but to say that LIV players don’t deserve some spots in major championships I think is wrong and I hope that evolves into what it should be, right. I think Joaquin Niemann has done a good enough job for him to earn his way into major championships without invites. Talor Gooch played good enough a few years ago to earn his way into majors without invites. There should be a way for us to qualify. And the World Ranking points, need to figure something out because it’s not fair for anybody in that sense.”
That Rahm has dropped outside the top 30 in the OWGR is damning, and devalues the rankings as a whole because of the 30 players currently ranked higher, only one or two can claim their ranking as being truly legitimate. And he’s also right that there should be pathways into the majors from LIV, as the major championships themselves and those of us who look forward to watching all want the best players in the world to be there.
But should LIV get world rankings? No, I’d argue they shouldn’t.
And it’s not because the tournaments are 54 holes long, not because they are run on a shotgun start format, not because the players at the sharp end of the LIV rankings aren’t worthy of ranking points, and not even because there are only 54 players in the field each week, though the last point is a big one.
It’s because, three years in, there is still no real clarity on how players remain eligible, how contracts are offered and little opportunity for genuinely worthy players to play their way onto the circuit.
For the 2025 season, only New Zealander Ben Campbell and Chieh-po Lee earned LIV spots – the former as the highest ranked non-LIV player on the Asian Tour’s International Series Order of Merit and the latter by winning the LIV Promotions Event.
Of the five players “relegated” at the end of the 2024 season, only three will have to find new places to play in 2025 as Bubba Watson and Branden Grace have been resigned. Previously, as a team captain Watson would have been exempt from relegation but nearing the end of the season, LIV announced that that would no longer be the case.
At least Grace attempted to play his way back by entering the Promotions Event and finishing second, but Watson didn’t even bother entering and, in hindsight, it’s clear that it’s because he had already been given assurance that he would return regardless. So what was the point in announcing that captains could and would be relegated when the only captain who was in real danger of being relegated was re-signed anyway?
Grace has been re-signed by the Stingers GC captain Louis Oosthuizen, presumably because they are mates and because Oosthuizen could. I don’t blame Louis either. At his best, Grace is very much worthy, but the simple fact is that he wasn’t nearly good enough in 2024 and there should be consequences for that.
Then, of course, we have the fact that, in Anthony Kim, LIV opted to sign a player who hadn’t played a professional golf tournament in 12 years; a player who, by his own admission, hadn’t played golf of any real sort until three months before his shock return on the LIV circuit. Kim’s enigmatic disappearance, 12 years in golfing recluse, and ‘wild man’ image meant that he was a name that was still on many golf media members’ lips, and provided the desired uptick in ratings for his return, but it had the opposite effect when it came to tipping the scales in favour of world ranking points eligibility.
It was also around this time that LIV opted to end their quest for OWGR recognition, so maybe had they been intent on pursuing that goal, Kim’s signing would never have happened, but happen it did.
Say what you want about the PGA and DP World Tours, but there are clear pathways onto both of them and clear guidelines as to what you must do to keep your card.
So, LIV players in the major championships? I’m all for it, and the major championship organisers would be wise to include an exemption category linked to the LIV rankings, but they’ve proven time and time again exactly why the OWGR were right to shut their doors.
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