A Reckoning has Arrived for LIV Golf
LIV Golf has a very important decision to make regarding its future: do they alter their format enough to meet the requirements of the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR), or do they fold entirely?
When news broke that the OWGR once again denied LIV Golf world ranking points for their tournaments, the golf world responded with a mix of surprise and eye rolls. This minor detail was undoubtedly a major selling point to PGA TOUR defectors who wanted an easier path to qualifying for Majors on top of massive paydays from LIV. In the end, however, it was the Majors that voted to prevent those players from achieving that goal.
According to UK reporter Jamie Weir, the OWGR governing board — comprised of representatives from every corner of men’s professional golf — whittled itself down to only a handful of deciding votes on the matter. That means only representatives from Augusta National, the PGA of America, the R&A, and the USGA actually voted on whether LIV Golf would be awarded world ranking points. The foursome decided that LIV Golf’s tournament format (among other factors) did not meet the criteria to earn points, and that was that.
What’s mind-boggling to me is that LIV Golf’s top brass knew this was going to happen all along. The OWGR qualifying criteria is easily found and abundantly clear, yet a mixture of pride and stubbornness from LIV clouded their judgement as they finalized their shotgun start, 54-hole tournament formats. None of this should have been a surprise.
In fact, any player who jumped ship to LIV Golf joined in this sort of groupthink that equates to not believing the rules apply to them. Perhaps it was also a promise from LIV recruiters that there was “no way” things wouldn’t work out. Oops.
What this decision has effectively done for LIV is spell out exactly how far down the road a finish line rests. Unless something massive changes in the atmosphere of men’s professional golf, competing in the Majors remains the ultimate goal for any player on any pro tour. While a handful of LIV Golf players are still riding an exempt wave for tournaments like the Masters and the Opens, time is running out for them.
For those players, the world ranking dam has been breached and there is nothing in place to stop the trickle.
None of this is good for fans of the game, let alone the players themselves. Can you imagine the likes of Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau or Brooks Koepka never playing in a Major again? The notion is ridiculous to entertain, yet the likelihood of occurring is increasing at an incredible rate.
Where LIV goes from here is yet to be seen, but there’s little doubt they have a few more tricks up their sleeve. There will likely be another appeal to the OWGR or at the very least a negotiation, which will require LIV to make significant changes to their format in order to comply with the OWGR criteria. Of course, that assumes that LIV is prepared to play along, which is something they’ve yet to show any interest in doing.
