Editor’s note: “In Case You Missed It” is a GGP+ feature that highlights a story from Global Golf Post‘s Monday magazine.
Delusional. That’s the only word that seemingly fits the collective psychosis that envelops much of the LIV Golf community who feel entitled to all the biggest perks in golf without working within the ecosystem that generates merit-based rewards.
Maybe newly announced CEO Scott O’Neil can bring some sense, order and sober leadership to his new constituents.
The check is slowly coming due for players who sold their services to the breakaway LIV Golf circuit. Eligibility into the most important events in golf – the major championships – is leaking away drip by drip as players compete on an exclusive island without access to Official World Golf Ranking points.
LIV’s perceived entitlement would have to come at the expense of the other top global tours, of course. But they think they deserve it.
To be clear, LIV Golf doesn’t have that access because it refused to consider reasonable suggestions from the OWGR to tweak the parameters of its 54-player, 54-hole, no-cut format to include more roster turnover based on performance and not guaranteed contracts. Instead of making some minor adjustments – like more firm relegation for poor play and more access for outside players to qualify their way in – former leader Greg Norman decided to pick up his golf ball and go home, withdrawing LIV’s application for inclusion in the OWGR. The league even doubled down on exclusivity, making LIV even less accessible via promotion qualifying.
This short-sighted blunder by LIV is based on some misguided belief that the majors are going to want to include their talent so badly that they will carve out exemptions for them into each of the four biggest championships in the world. And not just carve out one or two spots for top LIV performers, but handfuls of guaranteed places for 20 to 30 percent of LIV’s closed roster.
LIV’s perceived entitlement would have to come at the expense of the other top global tours, of course. But they think they deserve it.
Delusional.
Hear 41-year-old Kevin Na, who missed the cut in almost half his 46 career major starts with two top-10s: “I think, eventually, we will have a criteria from our league with a pathway straight to the major championships, I’m not too concerned about that,” Na recently told Golf Monthly.
“I think you do winners, so if you win a LIV Golf tournament – we only have 13, so to win a golf tournament with this field, it’s pretty difficult to do. Winners should be exempt, and I think you take the top 16 players or so. I think if you have a season and you finish inside the top 16, you should be exempt into all four majors. A lot of guys who are major champions and are exempt, they’re going to overlap, so top 10 isn’t enough. I don’t even think top 15 is enough – 16 is a good number.”
Hear 26-year-old Joaquin Niemann, who received his second straight special invitation into the Masters rewarding his performance off and on LIV: “I would look at the rankings – whoever is the most consistent during the year has the chance to play at all the majors next season. I would say the top 10 in the LIV rankings,” he told Golf Monthly.
“LIV winners could be a way to do it, too, because if you are winning tournaments then you have a chance to win majors. But, at the end of the day, I think it’s going to be pretty much the same with the top 10. They will all most likely win anyway.”
Let’s be clear, LIV is not getting 10 or 16 exemption spots into majors. Not from a closed circuit from which many of the players struggled to get into majors even before they joined LIV. There are 14 major champions among LIV’s 54 players, and arguably half of those are past their sell-by dates in terms of major relevance. Of the rest, there are a handful such as Niemann, Tyrrell Hatton, David Puig and Dean Burmester who would legitimately be vying for top-50 positions in the OWGR from any other tour. The remainder are rank-and-file, over-the-hill or unproven, at best.
So, other than perhaps a token exemption for maybe the top LIV individual finisher not otherwise qualified, there is only one feasible solution for extending access into the majors for LIV’s best golfers – the OWGR.
Jon Rahm seems to understand that better than anyone else on LIV.
“I’ve expressed my opinions on the world ranking system before I joined LIV,” Rahm said Tuesday ahead of competing in the Hero Dubai Desert Classic as he appeals DP World Tour sanctions against him. “But … they told me early on, I think even before I signed in the early conversations, that they were not going to pursue those discussions to the same level because they knew where it was directed.
“I think at this point, to not give LIV world ranking points and the credibility it deserves I think is wrong. Listen, I understand we’ve all made a decision and it’s not as easy as it sounds, but to say that LIV players don’t deserve some spots in major championships I think is wrong and I hope that evolves into what it should be, right. … There should be a way for us to qualify. And the world ranking points need to figure something out because it’s not fair for anybody in that sense.
“It’s just as competitive as pretty much any other tour. You have to go out there and play against some of the best players in the world.”
OWGR is far from perfect, but it’s the best system the majors have of comparing players from disparate tours and cultivating broader and deeper fields. LIV’s field strength would fall well shy of full-field PGA Tour events, but it would be on par with, if not better than in many cases, some DP World Tour events and better than Korn Ferry Tour or Asian Tour International Series tournaments.
Anyone who thinks it’s too late for already devalued LIV guys to gain traction in the OWGR isn’t paying attention. Look at Matt McCarty, who got red hot last summer playing Korn Ferry and climbed to No. 75 in the world entirely on a developmental tour. Rasmus Højgaard and Thriston Lawrence grinded their way into the top 50 on the backs of DP World Tour success.
With O’Neil on board immediately as CEO of LIV and Trevor Immelman getting ready to take over as the chairman of the OWGR, it’s the perfect time to negotiate LIV’s inclusion in the ranking system. No special treatment, just fair treatment.
LIV needs to stop feeling entitled and start making decisions in the best interests of its players who still desire to play on the world’s biggest stages. With O’Neil on board immediately as CEO of LIV and Trevor Immelman getting ready to take over as the chairman of the OWGR, it’s the perfect time to negotiate LIV’s inclusion in the ranking system. No special treatment, just fair treatment.
It really wouldn’t take much to get LIV on the OWGR books by 2026 – maybe sooner if they implemented some changes immediately this season.
It wouldn’t hurt LIV’s shotgun starts to immediately add six players to every field (from 54 to 60), letting wild-card players Anthony Kim and Lee Chieh-po captain two teams comprised of weekly qualifiers. Once an agreement with the PGA Tour is reached, maybe even weekly guest teams of tour players could be included. These mild expansions would create some intrigue and be enough to satisfy LIV’s access liabilities with OWGR.
Whatever the solution is, just stop complaining and stop making irrational demands of the majors to give LIV favored status it doesn’t deserve. Do whatever it takes to join the OWGR club and prove you belong in the majors.
That’s how golf works.