{"id":474560,"date":"2026-02-14T13:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T13:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/474560\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T13:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T13:48:09","slug":"world-ranking-points-will-be-a-boon-to-liv-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/474560\/","title":{"rendered":"World ranking points will be a boon to LIV players"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"Elvis Smylie earned roughly 23 Official World Golf Ranking points for his victory in LIV Golf Riyadh. Ross Kinnaird, Getty Images<\/p>\n

When the Official World Golf Ranking finally opened the door a crack to LIV Golf last week, they didn\u2019t exactly throw a party in Saudi Arabia to celebrate the news. There was a clear reaction of \u201cyeah \u2026 but\u201d coming from LIV circles as they kicked off the breakaway league\u2019s fifth season in Riyadh.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe acknowledge this long-overdue moment of recognition \u2026\u201d read the opening line of LIV\u2019s response statement to the decision that the OWGR would give world ranking points to the top-10 individual finishers each week.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, this outcome is unprecedented. \u2026 No other competitive tour or league in OWGR history has been subjected to such a restriction.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s true enough, but it\u2019s also true that no other tour in the history of golf is quite like LIV. OWGR chairman Trevor Immelman brokered a Solomonic solution for getting his board and the system to recognize a league that has merit even if it\u2019s not a full-fledged meritocracy in the way that golf tours around the world have always operated.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps after the latest rankings came out following LIV\u2019s inaugural counting event, the league might change its tune and come to better appreciate the value of the gift it received from the OWGR and what it can mean to the league\u2019s hungriest young players.<\/p>\n

Elvis Smylie, the unquestionably talented 23-year-old Australian left-hander, shone in his LIV debut under the lights in Riyadh with a one-shot victory over league heavyweight Jon Rahm. That win earned Smylie roughly 23 world-ranking points \u2013 not nearly the 58 that Chris Gotterup received for winning the PGA Tour\u2019s WM Phoenix Open but more than the 20.1 points former LIV star Patrick Reed got for winning the DP World Tour\u2019s Qatar Masters.<\/p>\n

With that relatively modest haul, Smylie climbed from 134th in the world to No. 77. That is not insignificant.<\/p>\n

Suddenly Elvis heads home to Australia this week for the popular LIV Golf Adelaide event knowing that another big finish in front of a raucous home crowd could put him on the brink of the top 50 and a potential chance to qualify for the Masters in April.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sam Hodde, Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI have goals that I want to achieve from a ranking point of view, and I\u2019m continuing to progress in the direction that I want to and play my way into majors, which is something that I\u2019m very passionate about doing,\u201d Smylie said Tuesday in Australia.<\/p>\n

Rahm did alright, too, collecting 13.3 points for another runner-up finish, which moved him up from a grossly undervalued No. 97 to 67th and on the path closer to where he belongs. Considering Rahm never finished outside the top 10 in 13 LIV starts last season (including four runner-up finishes), simulations show that he would likely be in the top 10 of the OWGR right now if LIV had been receiving the same points in the last two seasons.<\/p>\n

Peter Uihlein, who moved from 199th to 154th in the world ranking by finishing third in Riyadh, seemed to understand more than anyone else on LIV just how valuable getting any OWGR points is for the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cI might be one of the few that like it,\u201d Uihlein said. \u201cWe have more world-ranking points today than we did yesterday. I saw the winner gets 23 points (in Riyadh). In Qatar, he gets 20. In my mind we\u2019re the second-best tour in the world right now. Obviously, there are things that probably need to get worked out with the top 10 or whatever, but the reality is we have more points today than we did yesterday. I\u2019m all for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the kind of attitude that should incentivize the young players LIV has been increasingly going after the last two seasons. Finishing top-10 in a LIV event means something now, and if you string enough of those together it can add up to opportunities to play in majors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fantastic that we\u2019re getting points. It\u2019s fantastic that we\u2019re being recognized in a way. With that said, I don\u2019t like how we\u2019re not being treated the same as every other tour.\u201d \u2013 Jon Rahm<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a real carrot for players such as Smylie, Joaquin Niemann, Tom McKibbin, David Puig, Michael La Sasso, Caleb Surratt and Josele Ballester. This is a chance to really distinguish themselves and prove their merit in a league that now means a little more than just money.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s definitely a step in the right direction,\u201d Smylie said. \u201cI think there\u2019s still more work to be done, but I think \u2026 everyone here at LIV have done a really good job of being able to give us players the opportunity to be able to benefit from ranking points, which will therefore get us into the majors, which is incredibly important, for me especially. But it\u2019s great that we\u2019re able to do that on a platform like LIV now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Cam Smith, the 2022 Open and Players champion of Smylie: \u201cI genuinely think he can be the best golfer in the world. He\u2019s got all the tools of the trade. He just needs to keep doing what he\u2019s doing and knuckle down. \u2026 He has to decide where he goes from here, and I think it can only go one way, and it\u2019s better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Jon Rahm had a mixed reaction to the news on OWGR points for LIV Golf. Pedro Salado, LIV Golf<\/p>\n

OWGR will help define that, even if catching No. 1 Scottie Scheffler might be out of reach for those not playing the PGA Tour unless they win multiple majors. Rahm, who has ascended to world No. 1 before, understands the value of being a part of the system even if he wishes it was more.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fantastic that we\u2019re getting points. It\u2019s fantastic that we\u2019re being recognized in a way,\u201d Rahm said in Riyadh. \u201cWith 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 don\u2019t really apply to us, with only 10 of us only getting points. It doesn\u2019t seem fair. The small fields out there throughout the course of the year, their players get full points.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s work to be done. While it\u2019s good for some people, it could cause some players to actually lose world ranking points instead of gaining them because finishing 11th is basically a missed cut, and we\u2019re already adding to the divisor.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s certainly an issue, as Talor Gooch got nothing for finishing a stroke behind those tied for ninth last week and fell 11 spots further into irrelevance at 1,579th in the world. But the old adage \u201cplay better\u201d applies, and a big season on LIV could bring Gooch back to respectability.<\/p>\n

Of course, there are good reasons the OWGR isn\u2019t treating LIV the same way it treats every other tour, and it took great pains to spell that all out very plainly when it announced LIV\u2019s restricted inclusion. It classifies LIV Golf events as \u201csmall field tournaments\u201d with a ranking points distribution cutoff applied.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Board\u2019s overriding aim was to identify an equitable way of ranking the best men\u2019s players in the world, including the top performing players in LIV Golf, while taking account of the eligibility standards that LIV Golf does not currently meet and the fact that it operates differently from other ranked tours in a number of respects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those differences are substantial. LIV\u2019s average field size of 57 is lower than the minimum of 75 (average) set out in OWGR regulations. It operates exclusively no-cut events. Its restrictive pathways to join (only five spots filled from the Asian Tour\u2019s International Series and a closed promotions event) do not offset the turnover of underperforming players. And arguably most importantly, its recruitment and self-selection of contracted players flies in the face of golf\u2019s qualifying standards on all other tours.<\/p>\n

LIV should be very thankful it got what it got. And it can improve that by expanding true relegation and qualifying pathways into its league.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe fully recognized the need to rank the top men\u2019s 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,\u201d said Immelman, the 2008 Masters champion and CBS golf analyst who took the reins of the OWGR last year from Peter Dawson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

LIV should be very thankful it got what it got. And it can improve that by expanding true relegation and qualifying pathways into its league. It has known this since its first application for ranking points was rejected and Dawson thoughtfully spelled out that \u201cin order to obtain inclusion in the OWGR system, it is necessary for you to develop a structure that invites new players on objective, recent performance and relegates underperforming players more quickly and equitably.\u201d<\/p>\n

LIV expanded its \u201crelegation zone\u201d from six players to 11 in 2026, meaning those who finish from spots 47 to 57 in the individual standings will be dropped from the league in 2027 and be required to earn their way back via its promotions event or the International Series standings. Whether it creates 11 qualifying pathways to fill those spots next year remains to be seen, but it will need to do better to convince the OWGR to expand its points on offer.<\/p>\n

Like Dawson before him, Immelman made it clear that LIV will need to do more in order to be treated on equal footing with other tours.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at the OWGR and how it\u2019s made up with 25-plus eligible tours around the world, thousands of golfers that are ranked around the world, it\u2019s about meritocracy,\u201d Immelman said in December at the PNC Championship. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the beauties of our sport and the beauty of the professional game is earning your way onto a tour, fighting to keep your job on that tour. So it\u2019s really been more along those lines of working with them on understanding their league from that standpoint: meritocracy, promotion and relegation and the self-selection aspect of how their league is made up.\u201d<\/p>\n

It will never be the equal of the PGA Tour, but if LIV takes advantage of its OWGR opportunity, it could actually become a viable and sustainable global rival.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2026 Global Golf Post LLC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elvis Smylie earned roughly 23 Official World Golf Ranking points for his victory in LIV Golf Riyadh. Ross…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,192782,622,1977,6674,154106,153818,82],"class_list":["post-474560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-elivis-smylie","tag-golf","tag-jon-rahm","tag-liv-golf","tag-official-world-golf-ranking","tag-owgr","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}