Maybe LIV Golf officials really believed the 48 players in the tour’s Thailand event this week would begin earning world-ranking points immediately through the group’s new strategic alliance with the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Tour, announced as if it were a game-changing breakthrough earlier this week.
Or perhaps LIV Golf was trying to wish it into existence.
It may happen – those precious OWGR points being awarded in LIV Golf’s 54-hole, no-cut events – but it’s not happening this week nor next when the tour heads to Jeddah for its penultimate event in 2022.
Whether LIV Golf has found a backdoor channel to qualify for points – aligning itself with a developmental tour that went more than two years without playing an event – remains to be seen. Or maybe it’s trying to sneak in using a fake ID.
For the moment, though, the OWGR has effectively said stop, do not pass go, do not collect world-ranking points.
In a statement released Thursday, the OWGR said it is conducting a review of the changes made by the MENA Tour while making it clear such potential change doesn’t happen almost literally overnight.
The OWGR statement read, in part:
“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 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.”
The statement added that other MENA events, which include the 54-hole, no-cut finale, would continue to be eligible for world-ranking points.
David Spencer, the commissioner of the MENA Tour, said in a statement issued later Thursday that “not including our event in this week’s OWGR render the results and subsequent player movements inaccurate” and that the tour “will continue to work tirelessly to resolve this situation with the OWGR.”
“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 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.”
“We are taking this mutually beneficial action to support the game at the developmental level and because of the importance and fairness of LIV golfers qualifying for OWGR points.” – Atul Khosla
The statement added that other MENA events, which includes a 54-hole, no-cut finale, would continue to be eligible for world-ranking points.
Official World Golf Ranking points are at the heart of LIV Golf’s struggle against the professional game’s status quo. With no points awarded for LIV events and with former PGA Tour players banned from playing their old tour, rankings are plummeting.
Patrick Reed recently fell out of the top 50, and long-time world No. 1 Dustin Johnson has slipped to 23rd despite winning a LIV event.
In attracting a substantial number of top-tier players to LIV, organizers offered assurances the players would continue to earn world-ranking points, which are essential to qualify for major championships and also factor into contractual payouts. The group also assured players they would not be suspended from the PGA Tour, but those players have been suspended indefinitely.
LIV applied for world-ranking points in July during the Open Championship at St. Andrews despite not meeting a number of criteria to qualify for points.
The OWGR requires events to be 72 holes with at least 75 players and include a 36-hole cut. The tours must also have a qualifying system in place for players to earn their way into events.
LIV meets none of those requirements but has been insistent in its argument that its events deserve ranking points because of the number of top-level players.
Applications typically take one year or longer before a decision is rendered. Why it takes so long is a fair question for LIV or anyone else to ask.
Last month, the 48 players in the LIV tournament outside Chicago signed a letter sent to Peter Dawson, chairman of the OWGR, requesting world-ranking points be applied retroactively to all LIV events and for future events.
Nice try, but no points.
LIV officials have complained about the makeup of the OWGR board, which includes, among others, the leaders of the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the organizations that run the four major championships.
In announcing the strategic alliance with the MENA Tour, LIV Golf indicated it had solved its world-rankings problem.
“We are taking this mutually beneficial action to support the game at the developmental level and because of the importance and fairness of LIV golfers qualifying for OWGR points,” Atul Khosla, president and CEO of LIV Golf, said in a statement. “We’re pleased to create pathways that give more opportunities for young players, while also giving fans rankings that include all the world’s best golfers.”
The MENA Tour, which is based in Dubai, began play in 2011 and has been awarded OWGR points since 2016, offering a pathway to the Asian Tour and the Asian Developmental Tour.
“The alliance will boost the MENA Tour’s development programs and immediately qualify LIV Golf for OWGR points, starting with the LIV Golf Thailand event at Stonehill this week,” the tour’s statement read.
LIV’s events in Bangkok and Jeddah are the last two this season with individual competition as well as team competition. The season finale in Miami later this month is a team competition only.