LIV Golf, Official World Golf Rating saga nearing an finish4 min read

Whether or not LIV Golf receives Official World Golf Rating (OWGR) factors will quickly be decided.

A call on LIV Golf’s OWGR utility can be finalized quickly, in keeping with a report from the English golf web site Bunkered.

“We’re coming near a conclusion on it, and that’s all I can say,” Peter Dawson, the previous R&A chair and present chair of the OWGR, stated to Bunkered.

Since its inception, gamers on the LIV Golf circuit haven’t been eligible to obtain OWGR factors.

That has created some contentious moments amongst its gamers, because the highest-ranked LIV participant is Cameron Smith. The Australian now ranks 14th on this planet after being as excessive as third on the finish of the 2022 calendar yr.

Brooks Koepka, in the meantime, had hilariously fallen to 52nd on the finish of 2022. He now ranks seventeenth after he gained the 2023 PGA Championship.

Photograph by Keyur Khamar/PGA TOUR by way of Getty Photographs

And Dustin Johnson, the top-ranked participant on this planet following his victory on the 2020 Masters, is now 114th amidst his transfer to LIV.

Patrick Reed and Abraham Ancer are the one different LIV golfers in addition to Koepka and Smith who presently rank inside the high 100 golfers on this planet.

Entry into the 4 majors will depend on OWGR rankings.

For the Masters and The Open, the highest 50 gamers within the OWGR obtain invites to compete. The highest 60 gamers are granted entry into the U.S. Open, whereas the highest 100 can play within the PGA Championship.

However, since LIV Golf occasions don’t award OWGR factors, LIV gamers can solely obtain world-ranking factors when taking part in within the 4 majors.

Therefore, Koepka and Smith rating so extremely, as they every gained a serious championship inside the final two years.

But, if the OWGR denies LIV Golf world rating factors, many gamers won’t have entry to the majors in 2024 and past. That has created a little bit of a catch-22.

“We now have to be truthful to everyone, not simply the brand new guys however the different excursions as nicely,” Dawson stated.

LIV Golf options 54-hole occasions, shotgun begins, and restricted subject sizes. It’s fairly completely different when in comparison with different excursions all over the world.

Photograph by Ross Kinnaird/R&A/R&A by way of Getty Photographs

“We’ve had loads of work to do with the rankings as a result of the LIV format and a number of the qualification standards are very completely different to different excursions which are a part of the rating,” Dawson famous.

The applying course of to realize OWGR eligibility for brand spanking new excursions takes a few yr or so to finish, says the OWGR board.

The top of that course of appears to be ending, and a call might be made very quickly.

Maybe it’s going to come inside the subsequent couple of weeks, after the Alfred Dunhill Hyperlinks Championship in Scotland.

Shockingly, Yasir al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Public Funding Fund, is taking part in within the occasion as an novice and is paired with LIV golfer Peter Uihlein.

Al-Rumayyan performed a observe spherical with R&A CEO Martin Slumbers and can play at Carnoustie Golf Hyperlinks on Friday with Dawson, who can be taking part in on this occasion alongside younger South African Jayden Schaper.

Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By way of. You may comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko for extra golf protection. You should definitely try @_PlayingThrough too.