'It's Not a True System': Patrick Reed, Now 56th in the World, Chimes in on Rankings Debate
KING ABDULLAH ECONOMIC CITY, Saudi Arabia — Patrick Reed didn’t mean to get drawn into the world rankings discussion that hovers over LIV Golf, but inevitably he couldn’t help himself Thursday when posed with the question.
Reed, who once declared he was a top-5 player in the world after winning a World Golf Championship event back in 2014, is nowhere close to that number now. But is he 56th?
“No, not at all,’’ Reed said Thursday at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club, site of the LIV Invitational Series Jeddah event that begins Friday. “The only thing I’ll say about all that is the longer you have competitive golf and competition with such great players and top players, the longer they’re playing events that aren’t getting world ranking points, it just makes the world ranking system insignificant.
“Let’s be honest; it’s not a true system if you’re not counting all the events and having points for everybody.’’
This has become the LIV Golf talking point: that the world rankings are not representative of men’s professional golf if you exclude ranking the players in LIV Golf.
The point made by Reed a bit later—“if you’re competing for a golf tournament and they meet every criteria that you’re supposed to meet in order to have world ranking points, then you should be getting world ranking points no matter what’’—is less valid.
LIV Golf, by it’s own admission, does not meet all of the OWGR’s guidelines. The two biggest deficiencies are a lack of a 36-hole cut and direct qualifying access to events. It also has not been in operation for a year.
But LIV Golf also points to the OWGR handbook, which has a long list of guidelines, but also says they are there to be followed or not: that the OWGR board has discretion to award a Tour points based on its own determination.
And so LIV Golf waits.
This is the last individual event of 2022, with the next tournament in two weeks a season-ending team competition. The hope is to have points in place for next year, when it becomes the LIV Golf League and plays a 14-event schedule.
“It doesn't matter where you're playing, who you're playing, what tour you're on, anything like that,’’ Reed said. “If you're trying to say that we don't deserve world ranking points, this and that, then it's a political battle, it's not an actual true system.
“Last time I checked, every sport you play, it's based off of competition and who you're playing, how strong that field is and who wins, and you're allocated certain things. It doesn't matter what tour you're playing on.’’
Reed began the year ranked 25th but began to slide prior to joining LIV Golf. He was 38th after a tie for 49th at the U.S. Open. A tie for fifth last month at the BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour did not see him budge off the 50th position.
As the 2018 Masters champion, Reed has a lifetime invitation to that tournament and will be in the last of his five-year exemption into the other majors in 2023.