Saudi-backed circuit is eligible for World Ranking points<\/a>, a pursuit that has been five years in the making for LIV. LIV events will be ranked based on OWGR\u2019s standard classification of \u201cSmall Field Tournaments\u201d with a \u201cRanking points distribution cutoff\u201d applied to award points to players who finish in the top 10 (and ties). The winner will receive the projected equivalent of an alternate-event champion on the PGA Tour and more than some DP World Tour events. The accreditation came despite, as the OWGR pointed out in a statement, of LIV falling short of several standards, specifically the \u201cself-selection of players, many of whom being recruited rather than earning their place on the tour, and, in recent days, the addition\/removal of players to\/from teams based on their nationality rather than for meritocratic reasons\u201d.<\/p>\nHowever, LIV Golf officials felt they deserved more points. While officials acknowledged the \u201cmoment of recognition\u201d they likewise sounded off on the decision: \u201cThis 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 \u2013 precisely the players a fair and meritocratic ranking system is designed to recognise. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the first round at LIV\u2019s season-opening event in Riyadh, Rahm joined the criticism.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s fantastic that we\u2019re getting points,\u201d Rahm said on LIV\u2019s broadcast. \u201cIt\u2019s fantastic that we\u2019re being recognised in a way. With that said, I don\u2019t like how we\u2019re not being treated the same as every other tour. It seems like the rules that have been in place aren\u2019t really applied to us, with only 10 of us getting points, it doesn\u2019t seem fair. There are small fields out there throughout the course of the year that get full points, or full players get points, right? So, there\u2019s work to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Rahm finished the 2023 PGA Tour season \u2013 his last before defecting to LIV \u2013 he ranked third in the OWGR. This week, he enters 97th, a byproduct of LIV\u2019s non-OWGR accreditation and his struggles in majors the past two years. Rahm was one of the more vocal voices at LIV to move to 72 holes in pursuit of OWGR points, a change that other LIV players have not welcomed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile it\u2019s good for some people, it could cost some players to actually lose world-ranking points, instead of gain them,\u201d Rahm later added, \u201cbecause finishing in 11th is basically a missed cut, and we\u2019re already adding to the divisor. But I\u2019m thankful that LIV Golf got their foot in the door, and there\u2019s a possibility for us to walk in the room and be recognised as a tour, as we should be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite not winning on LIV last year, Rahm finished atop the league\u2019s individual point standings and won the \u201cclutch\u201d player of the year award. He sits T-4 after the opening round<\/a>, two shots behind Thomas Detry and Peter Uihlein.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photo: Francois Nel] Jon Rahm has expressed frustration with the board of the Official World Golf Ranking, believing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,755,138747,15811,14239,44,237346,162846,85],"class_list":["post-462517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-jon-rahm","tag-liv-golf","tag-news","tag-offical-world-golf-ranking","tag-ranking-points","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}