LIV Golfers Lost Their Fight for World Ranking Points, and They Shouldn't Be Surprised

The Saudi-backed league was never going to get an OWGR stamp of approval, Michael Rosenberg writes, in what also amounts to a win for the PGA Tour.

Two weeks ago, the 79th-ranked golfer in the world played very well in the highest-pressure environment of his career, against some of the best players in the world—and got zero Official World Golf Ranking points for it.

The golfer was Ludvig Aberg. The event was the Ryder Cup. It is a rather big deal.

But since the Ryder Cup is a team event and does not meet OWGR eligibility requirements, none of the golf shots at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club counted toward world rankings. If Aberg only cared about amassing enough points to climb into the OWGR top 50 so he could make his major-championship debut at the Masters next spring, he would have been better off playing in the Telangana Golconda Masters in Hyderabad, India, than in the Ryder Cup.

Whether this makes sense is an interesting question. But this is how OWGR works. It is not a secret. So when OWGR leaders announced Tuesday that LIV Golf tournaments remain ineligible for rankings points, it was highly predictable.

Brooks Koepka won't need OWGR points to get into majors but many of his LIV mates aren't going to be so fortunate :: Andrew Medichini/AP

It was also a significant victory for the PGA Tour as it continues negotiations to take control of LIV Golf. Most LIV golfers need OWGR points to get access to majors. For the near future, their best chance to get them is for the Tour to complete its deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

If this surprises anybody on the LIV Tour, it is their own fault.

LIV is an enterprise built on naked self-interest that only the participants refuse to acknowledge. Players went purely for the money, but Greg Norman convinced himself they share his vision for a world tour. PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan primarily wants to be a big shot in golf and to spread his country’s money around in very public ways, but Norman and some of his players seem convinced Al-Rumayyan cares more about saving LIV.

Many LIV players were convinced that OWGR would have to give LIV points, because their tour has a few top players who clearly deserve them. This was delusional. Pretty much nobody in golf’s establishment wanted LIV around. OWGR leaders are not just making up the rules as it goes along in an attempt to punish LIV Golf. It isn’t necessary. The rules as written make it very easy to punish LIV Golf.

Exceptions can be granted under certain conditions—Tiger Woods’s Hero World Challenge has one—but there was never a real chance LIV would get one.

If the Tour deal falls apart, LIV will still ultimately prevail in the rankings fight. It will find some way for players who do not have guaranteed deals to qualify for LIV events. It can add cuts if need be. It can tweak or even eliminate the team format. LIV can eliminate every reason to prevent LIV from getting points … but even then, the OWGR board will take its sweet time granting approval.

The LIV Tour can win by playing the long game. But most LIV players would still lose. A few LIV Golfers, like Brooks Koepka and Cam Smith, have earned major exemptions that should carry them for as long as necessary. The rest would miss all the majors for a year or two, and then would have to earn their way back.

Fair or not, this was the life they chose.

So: Is it fair—or not?

Well, let’s go back to the Ryder Cup. It certainly colors how most golf fans view the top players in the world; one could easily argue that each match should receive OWGR points. But Ryder Cup captains get to choose half the teams; should they get to decide who is eligible for points? What if a player plays great but loses a match—or plays poorly but wins? How do you measure individual performances in alternate-shot matches?

If a player arrives at the 18th tee on Sunday needing to halve his match for his team to win the Cup, should he put himself first or his team? This, by the way, was a factor in denying points for LIV players—sometimes they are put in positions where they have to choose between themselves and their teams. (It is also why LIV’s format has always felt like a gimmick.)

This is a fun conversation for golf dorks. It’s not so much fun if your career hinges on the answers. LIV players lost again Tuesday. Now all they can do is complain about being denied fair access to competition—and hope nobody sees the irony.