After the Official World Golf Ranking rejected LIV Golf’s application for points, the upstart circuit now has the four major championships in its crosshairs.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, DP World Tour chief executive Keith Pelley and the International Federation of PGA Tours’ Keith Waters all reportedly recused themselves from the LIV decision to avoid a conflict of interest, leaving the decision to leaders from Augusta National, the PGA of America, the United States Golf Association and the R&A.
LIV’s lengthy response failed to address the OWGR’s reason for rejecting points – its qualifying and relegation methods – but did condemn the world ranking and question its legitimacy.
“Players have historically remained subject to a single world ranking to qualify for Major Championships, the biggest events, and for corporate sponsor contract value,” the statement read. “A ranking which fails to fairly represent all participants, irrespective of where in the world they play golf, robs fans, players and all of golf’s stakeholders of the objective basis underpinning any accurate recognition of the world’s best player performances. It also robs some traditional tournaments of the best fields possible.”
Bryson DeChambeau, captain of Crushers GC, agrees.
“It’s just been par for the course, unfortunately, and I think at this point in time now that (the OWGR are) not allowing it, we would love to find another way to be integrated into the major championship system since I think we have some of the best players in the world,” said DeChambeau ahead of LIV Golf’s regular-season finale this week in Saudi Arabia. “Top 12 on the list, the Money List at the end of the year or the points list at the end of the year would be, I think, obvious for the major championships to host the best players in the world at those four events each year.”
“It’s honestly sad that they’ve done that,” he added.
LIV Golf is using the OWGR for its 72-hole promotion event, where players ranked within the top 200 will be eligible to play their way in to the league. While there is a small pathway in place for some outside players to gain access to LIV, it’s apparently not yet up to the OWGR’s standards.
The OWGR is the main way for players to qualify for major championships, but it’s certainly not the only route. Major championships can change their exemption criteria at their discretion, as seen last year with the U.S. Open, and DeChambeau’s idea seems to be the easiest way for LIV players to return to major competition. It’s also important to note that two of the four majors are Open championships, where LIV players have the ability to contend through open qualifying.
With less than 200 days until the first men’s major of the year at the 2024 Masters, the green jackets at Augusta National are now on the clock.