“This is entirely technical” - LIV Golf denied Official World Golf Ranking points following OWGR’s decision

In an unfortunate development for the rebel tour, LIV Golf events will still be unable to record OWGR points. The world ranking system declined to count their performance in the rankings, which means they still cannot level up. OWGR president Peter Dawson said, via Global Golf Post:

“This is entirely technical. OWGR has no hostility toward LIV whatsoever.”

The board for OWGR released this statement about the raised concern over LIV events, declining to grant them any points. It was unanimous, which suggests that Dawson's other claim falls flat:

“The Board Committee met recently to again review your OWGR submission in light of your latest responses to the Committee’s questions and concerns. At the meeting, the Board Committee unanimously determined that, at this time, the LIV Tour will not be recognised as an Eligible Golf Tour in the OWGR system.”

Dawson also admitted that the rankings are diminished a bit if players like Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau are not counted. However, he also said it would diminish the ranking if the rigor of the ranking was reduced to include them and other LIV stars.

The English golfer swore that this had nothing to do with the players, who are good enough to be ranked. He stated that the only issue is the format in which they play:

"This is about, should a tour whose formats are so different and whose qualification criteria are so different, can they be ranked equitably with other tours who conform to the OWGR norm and have more competition to them than perhaps the closed shop that is LIV?”

Brooks Koepka, who won the PGA Championship and finished T2 at the Masters, is ranked 18th. He is the only LIV player among the top 60. Patrick Reed (62), Joaquin Niemann (64), Mito Pereira (79), and Abraham Ancer (92) are the lone LIV Golf players ranked in the top 100.

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LIV Golf and OWGR battle not done yet

This is not the end of the road for LIV when it comes to points. For starters, Greg Norman has said in the past that a new points system was possible. Nevertheless, OWGR admitted that there could be some changes down the line in terms of adjusting things to include LIV points:

“The Board Committee has not made a specific determination what that adjustment might be and will not do so while there are other unresolved deficiencies which render the performance comparisons with players playing in existing OWGR Tour events extremely difficult.”

The door is not totally closed. This is something many LIV Golf members have been wanting. Koepka would undoubtedly be ranked very high if his events counted. Cameron Smith was ranked world number three when he defected, and he was trending towards a shot at the top rank.

LIV Golf events do not count for world rankings

They face a steep battle in terms of getting ranking points, and this is a frustrating development. It is not, however, the end of the line. It's likely that leadership will continue pursuing avenues for this.