After years of discussion and dissent, world golf ranking points will now be awarded to LIV Golf, though on a limited basis reflective of the tour’s unique framework.
In making the announcement Tuesday, the Official World Golf Ranking said points will be awarded to the top 10 finishers in LIV Golf’s individual stroke-play events, a decision “which recognises there are a number of areas where LIV Golf does not meet the eligibility standards set out by OWGR.”
Because of its team-based structure, the number of players who are under contract to the league regardless of their performance and the limited relegation within the league’s structure, the OWGR initially denied points to LIV Golf despite the assurances from former CEO Greg Norman that players who joined the league would be eligible for ranking points when the league began play in 2022.
Norman ultimately withdrew LIV’s application for ranking points but the league reapplied last year when Scott O’Neil replaced Norman as CEO. The decision gives LIV Golf something but likely far less than it had hoped to receive.
“We fully recognised the need to rank the top men’s players in the world but at the same time had to find a way of doing so that was equitable to the thousands of other players competing on other tours that operate with established meritocratic pathways.” – Trevor Immelman
The league’s points will be based on the OWGR’s “small-field tournaments” guidelines and limited to the top 10 and ties in part because of LIV’s failure to meet other eligibility requirements from the rankings organization.
“This has been an incredibly complex and challenging process and one which we have devoted a huge amount of time and energy to resolving in the seven months since LIV Golf submitted their application. We fully recognised the need to rank the top men’s players in the world but at the same time had to find a way of doing so that was equitable to the thousands of other players competing on other tours that operate with established meritocratic pathways,” Trevor Immelman, chairman of the OWGR, said in a statement.
“We believe we have found a solution that achieves these twin aims and enables the best-performing players at LIV Golf events to receive OWGR points.”
Winners will receive approximately the same number of ranking points as the winners of opposite-field events on the PGA Tour. Earning ranking points is critical for some LIV players to qualify for major championships.
According to the OWGR, the winner of LIV Golf’s season-opening tournament in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, this week will receive 23.03 points. By comparison, Justin Rose earned 56.96 points for winning the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open and Scottie Scheffler earned 65.22 points for capturing the American Express.
Last year, Ryan Fox earned 27.73 points for winning the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic opposite the Truist Championship on the PGA Tour.
Immelman also said the organization will continue to evaluate LIV’s eligibility as it moves to 72-hole events this year, with indications there will be further changes in 2027.
LIV’s 57-player fields fall short of the OWGR’s 75-player minimum and all of the events are no-cut tournaments. The OWGR also cited the limited pathways to LIV Golf including the addition and removal of some players to and from the league based on their nationality rather than merit.
In a statement Tuesday, O’Neil acknowledged the movement by the OWGR but took issue with its limitations.
“We acknowledge this long‑overdue moment of recognition, which affirms the fundamental principle that performance on the course should matter, regardless of where the competition takes place,” O’Neil said.
“However, this outcome is unprecedented. Under these rules, a player finishing 11th in a LIV Golf event is treated the same as a player finishing 57th. Limiting points to only the top 10 finishers disproportionately harms players who consistently perform at a high level but finish just outside that threshold, as well as emerging talent working to establish themselves on the world stage – precisely the players a fair and meritocratic ranking system is designed to recognize.
“No other competitive tour or league in OWGR history has been subjected to such a restriction. We expect this is merely a first step toward a structure that fully and fairly serves the players, the fans, and the future of the sport.”
LIV argued that other tours have smaller fields but are not penalized for it, citing 92 OWGR-eligible events since 2022 that had fewer than 75 players, 32 of those events on the PGA Tour or DP World Tour, including the three FedEx Cup playoff events and multiple signature events.
“So that’s definitely made us have some different thoughts about it. I’ve got a contract for this year, and we’ll go through it there and see what happens after that. … Is it what we ultimately signed up for? No.” – Bryson DeChambeau, on LIV Golf’s shift from 54- to 72-hole events
The news comes as LIV Golf begins its 2026 season in the aftermath of Brooks Koepka’s return to the PGA Tour and Patrick Reed’s announcement that he will follow suit later this year.
Jon Rahm, one of LIV’s biggest stars, wanted more from the OWGR decision.
“It’s fantastic that we’re getting points. It’s fantastic that we’re being recognized in a way,” Rahm said. “With that said, I don’t like how we’re not being treated the same as every other tour. It seems like the rules that have been in place don’t really apply to us, with only 10 of us getting points. It doesn’t seem fair. The small fields out there throughout the course of the year, their players get full points…
“But I’m thankful that I would say LIV Golf got their foot in the door, and there’s a possibility for us to walk in the room and be recognized as a tour, as we should be.”
It was made clear recently by Bryson DeChambeau, the tour’s biggest star, that the move away from 54 holes doesn’t sit well with some players.
“It’s definitely changed away from what we had initially been told it was going to be. So there is some movement that we’ve all been, I would say, interested in and going ‘why that movement?’ Because we were told it was going to be this,” DeChambeau told Today’s Golfer.
“So that’s definitely made us have some different thoughts about it. I’ve got a contract for this year, and we’ll go through it there and see what happens after that. … Is it what we ultimately signed up for? No. So I think we’re supposed to be different, so I’m a little different to it right now. Hopefully it weighs positively on me over the course of time but you never know. I’m not sure. We didn’t sign up to play for 72.”