“I think the OWGR right now is laughable” - Jon Rahm slams Official World Golf Ranking, says LIV Golf should get points

Jon Rahm has weighed in on the conversation around the Official World Golf Rankings and called it “laughable.” The Spaniard slammed the ranking points system and said that the officials had made a “mistake” with it.

Rahm was speaking at a press conference ahead of the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai when he took on the OWGR system. The golfer, who received honorary life membership on the tour, said that the system was broken and top-ranked players missing from high-rated events were becoming a problem.

However, the 28-year-old didn’t blame LIV Golf, like some others, for the downfall of the ranking system.

Speaking in Dubai, Jon Rahm said:

“I’m going to be as blunt as I can. I think the OWGR right now is laughable. Laughable. Laughable. The fact that the (PGA Tour’s RSM Classic) doesn’t have any of the top 20 in the world has more points than this event where we have seven of the top 20 is laughable. The fact that Wentworth had less points than Napa, having players in the top 10 in the world is laughable.”

Jon Rahm's strong comments came after OWGR revealed that the DP World Tour Championship winner would be getting lesser points than PGA Tour’s RSM Classic winner. As per the rankings website, the winner of the RSM Classic, held in Georgia, will receive 38.38 points, while the European tour event winner will settle for a projected score of 21.82.

Emphasizing the same, the golfer said he ‘didn’t care’ for the current system.

Jon Rahm said:

“I understand what they are trying to do with the depth of field but having the best players in the world automatically makes the tournament better. I don’t care what their system says. I think they have made a mistake. I think some aspects of it might be beneficial but I think they have devalued the value of the better players."

He added:

"Depth of field doesn’t mean better tournament. I could go on and on. I think they have missed the mark on that stance quite a bit.”

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Jon Rahm questions stakes on PGA Tour and DP World Tour events

It is pertinent to note that World No.1 Rory McIlroy explained the points discrepancy between the two events during his press conference. Dubbing it ‘fair’, the Irishman said that the PGA Tour event had a larger field, which resulted in increased points.

Speaking during his press conference on Tuesday, McIlroy said:

“Yeah, so when you look at two different fields, you’ve got a 50-man field (in Dubai) versus a 144-man field (in Georgia). So just in terms of how the strengths of field is calculated, they have 90 more players to contribute to their strength of field… So the reason that this has got 21 points and the RSM has got 39 is the person that wins the RSM has to beat 139 other guys. You only have to beat 49 other guys here. It’s a much fairer system.”

However, Jon Rahm wasn’t impressed by this. He questioned whether the stakes were high on the PGA Tour event with fewer top-ranked players or the DP World Tour event, which had the World No.1 himself on the field.

Despite being critical of OWGR, Rahm didn’t attack LIV Golf or its players over the same. Unlike many others, the Spaniard stuck to reasoning while slamming the system and said that the rebel players weren’t at fault. He even went to lengths to state that the Saudi-backed series led by Greg Norman had the right to win ranking points.

He said that he wasn’t “necessarily against” the idea of LIV golfers getting points.