While players in the well-heeled professional LIV Golf organization are making good money at its events, they are losing out on a closely held world ranking system that can determine entry into major events like the Masters Tournament.
The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that top golfers who joined LIV, defecting from the PGA Tour, are no longer getting ranking points from the Official World Golf Ranking organization, a key to entering major world tournaments like the annual Augusta, Georgia, classic.
LIV moved this week to partner with the developmental Middle East and North Africa Tour to enable participants to get the coveted ranking points, which can also lead to lucrative endorsement contracts, but the OWGR issued a statement Wednesday saying it would "review" the apparent partnership and decide if the organization will award any ranking points to LIV golfers participating in the MENA Tour events.
The problem, according to the OWGR, is that the tournaments MENA is working with LIV do not "fit the criteria" for the awarding of points because the format is different from traditional PGA and other golf organization tournaments.
"OWGR notes that the first two tournaments in this series appeared to be the same as the LIV Golf Invitational Series tournaments in Bangkok and Jeddah [in Saudi Arabia]. The communication from the MENA Tour included a starting field data file for the Bangkok tournament, confirming that to be the case. A review of the changes to the MENA Tour is now underway by the OWGR," the organization's statement read. "Notice of these changes given by the MENA Tour is insufficient to allow OWGR to conduct the customary necessary review ahead of the LIV Golf Invitational Bangkok (7-9 October) and LIV Golf Invitational Jeddah (14-16 October). Only after the review is complete will a decision be made on awarding points to the MENA Tour's new 'Limited Field Tournaments,' defined by the MENA Tour in its Regulations as 'any MENA Tour-approved tournament, which comprises of a player field of less than 80 players.'"
LIV and the PGA have been at war since the Saudi-backed organization entered the scene, harvesting some of the biggest names in the PGA for its own tournaments.
In response, the PGA suspended members going into LIV events, allowing their world rankings to drop significantly, Golf.com reported Friday.
"When they keep holding it back, they're going to just keep playing a waiting game where we're going to keep dropping down in the rankings to where our points won't ever matter," Bryson DeChambeau said in Thailand this week, according to the news outlet. "That's what they're trying to accomplish, and I hope that people can see right through that rather than believe the lies that they've been told. From my perspective, I think we deserve points."
According to the report, earning the points will make the decision for top golfers to leave the PGA easier if they can still qualify for the major tournaments.
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