LIV Golf received a boost on the eve of starting its fifth season when the Official World Golf Ranking approved the Saudi-funded league to receive ranking points for the first time.
The unanimous decision Tuesday by the OWGR board came with some conditions, however, that did not sit well with LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil.
Points will be distributed only for top-10 finishes and ties, compared with other tours that have smaller fields and leave out only the bottom finishers.
“No other competitive tour or league in OWGR history has been subjected to such a restriction," LIV said in a statement.
For its 57-player league, LIV will get points based on a “Small Field Tournament” category that also applies to tournaments like the Tour Championship and the PGA Tour's signature events that do not have a cut.
“Under these rules, a player finishing 11th in a LIV Golf event is treated the same as a player finishing 57th," the LIV statement said. “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.”
Considering that LIV Golf has been without ranking points since the league launched in 2022, its strength of field will be lower. Tyrrell Hatton at No. 22 and two-time U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau at No. 33 are the only LIV players in the top 50, with five others among the top 100. Jon Rahm, the last player before Scottie Scheffler to be No. 1 in the world, now is at No. 97.
The decision is effective immediately as LIV Golf begins Wednesday in Saudi Arabia.
“It's a big day, and a positive day in my mind,” Trevor Immelman, a former Masters champion and OWGR chairman, said in a telephone interview. “It's been a long process, it's been exhausting in many ways, with a whole host of people from outside being involved and working around the clock to make this decision before LIV plays its first event.”
LIV's season opener in Riyadh is likely to award about 23 points to the winner, compared with nearly 47 points to Chris Gotterup when he won the Sony Open, the weakest field in the early part of the PGA Tour season. The Phoenix Open winner this week gets about 59 points.
LIV would get slightly more points than the Qatar Masters on the European tour this week.
Even so, it would be a boost for a LIV player if he gets on a roll, such as Joaquin Niemann winning five times last year and Rahm finishing in the top 10 in all but one of the 13 events.
The world ranking is important because the four majors use it to help determine fields. The U.S. Open and British Open created categories for LIV players when they weren't getting ranking points. The Masters and PGA Championship took care of worthy players through special invitations.
The board decision ends a debate that has been around almost as long as LIV. The OWGR rejected the first application in October 2023 when former chairman Peter Dawson said the board could not fairly measure LIV against the other tours.
The question was not about the quality of players, but rather how they could be ranked equitably with thousands of other players across 24 tours because LIV was perceived as having a closed shop instead of pathways and turnover.
“We fully recognized 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,” Immelman said in the OWGR announcement. “We believe we have found a solution that achieves these twin aims.”
Immelman, now the lead CBS Sports analyst, became OWGR chairman last year and had been in constant contact with O’Neil.
LIV has gone from 54 holes to 72 holes for 2026, though that wasn’t a big obstacle in getting world ranking points because other smaller tours around the world also have 54-hole events. Rather it was the turnover in LIV, and the self-selection of adding players with contracts.
It also expanded its field size by three to 57 players, still short of the average field size of 75 the OWGR preferred. It expanded its “relegation zone” to 11 players who get dropped and have to earn their way back through a qualifying event or the Asian Tour's International Series points list.
The board worked around those issues to make LIV Golf the 25th circuit in the OWGR.
“It's extremely important for us to be able to rank the best players in the world as accurately as possible,” Immelman said. "That has been at the top of my mind throughout this process that I've been involved in. I'm thankful to Scott for his time and effort in this.
“I dream of a world in the men's professional game where everybody is working together and fans enjoy the great golf being played all over the world. That's been my North Star since I took this role.”
The PGA Tour and European tour — commercially known as the DP World Tour — recused themselves from the OWGR decision in October when LIV's application was rejected. The full board was involved in the decision Tuesday.
LIV said it saw the decision as a “first step toward a structure that fully and fairly serves the players, the fans, and the future of the sport.”
“We entered this process in good faith and will continue to advocate for a ranking system that reflects performance over affiliation,” LIV said. “The game deserves transparency. The fans deserve credibility. And the players deserve a system that treats them equally.”
The PGA Tour said in a statement, “We respect today’s decision by the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) governing board and the considerable time the board and Chairman Immelman committed to this process.”
The OWGR said it would continue to review any changes LIV makes to its league for 2027, which would result in awarding more — or fewer — points, and whether it remains in the system.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
FILE - Tyrrell Hatton, of Legion XIII, hits his shot from the 13th tee during the semifinals of LIV Golf Team Championship Michigan at The Cardinal at Saint John's, Saturday, August 23, 2025 in Plymouth, Mich. (Scott Taetsch/LIV Golf via AP, File)
FILE - LIV Golf CEO, Scott O'Neil laughs while playing with Brooks Koepka of Smash GC, Paul Danforth and Jordan Bazant during the pro-am before the start of LIV Golf Riyadh at Riyadh Golf Club, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Charles Laberge/LIV Golf via AP, File)
FILE - International team captain Trevor Immelman waves toward the gallery before a foursomes match at the Presidents Cup golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Sept. 22, 2022, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
