LIV Golf and the OWGR ranking points system — a saga that looks as if it may never end.

Within the last year or so, we’ve had the Greg Norman-led tour create a “strategic alliance” with the third-tier MENA Tour, something Atul Khosla, the then President and COO of LIV Golf, said was, “to create pathways that give more opportunities for young players, while also giving fans rankings that include all the world’s best golfers.”

Within a few days, high-ranking PGA Tour players joined in with their views, with 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama amongst those believing those that had left the PGA and DPWT tours “should be able to.”

However, for all the camaraderie, Deki, alongside Rory McIlroy, and Viktor Hovland agreed with the latter’s statement, “They [LIV] obviously have to follow the process, whatever the process might be.”

Confused?

Amongst the broken rules of the “process” seemed to be the shotgun starts and the 54-hole style of tournament, something that was negated once the OWGR, the leading golf rankings organization, awarded ranking points to the three-round Gira de Golf Professional de Mexicana at the turn of the year.

The move understandably irked LIV, particularly just a few weeks after Norman had said

“I understand they have a process. I get all that. But the OWGR was never prepared for a new entity like LIV Golf. You have to expect the unexpected sometimes. When somebody comes along with an incredible business model that is working and, as we’ve shown, you’ve got to have that flexibility and adaptability to allow a new entity coming along.”

“OWGR was never, ever ready for that type of approach.”

Of course, all LIV players have given their opinion, and understandably have attacked the OWGR for its continual refusal to at least acknowledge the winners of their events.

Last week, Phil Mickelson, the first golfer to sign for LIV all those months ago, gave a passionate response to Colt Knost’s question as to why the tour just didn’t simply meet the OWGR criteria from the start.

“Colt, it is not our job,” wrote the six-time major champion. “It is the OWGR’s job to rank ALL the players in the world. Maybe they can do THEIR job and figure it out like they do for multiple tours with hundreds of players not even close to as good.But that would hurt the PGA’s revenue from CBS so the leaders won’t.”

Then just a week ago, Firepit Collective contributor, Alan Shipnuck, suggested that the lines between the PGA and LIV tours were becoming blurred and that ranking points are almost certain to be awarded soon. Somehow. If they meet a criteria, I guess.

In his Ask Alan column, the author of the unauthorized biography of Phil Mickelson stated that, in his opinion, “An extra round gives the best player more opportunity to separate himself, but 54 holes has a certain urgency and demands three good scores with little room for error.”

Indeed, he states, “Next year, nine of the 12 elevated events won’t have a cut, which means…more guaranteed money for the players. So the LIV and Tour products are becoming increasingly similar.”

As for ranking LIV players,

“The OWGR had a set of pre-established criteria, and the governing board is following it to the letter. July will be one year since LIV put in its application,” and that, having spoken to those at the top,

“the primary issue is that LIV doesn’t meet the average field size of 75.”

That shouldn’t stop points being awarded, however, as “the ranking itself will automatically penalize LIV, based on the revised algorithm—announced in August 2021, before LIV had launched—that favors full fields over smaller one.”

Shipnuck explains how the “major championships control the OWGR,” and “are inherently selfish and want what’s best for their respective tournaments.”

The official list simply makes no sense as a barometer of where a player is ranked, which is why we see the likes of LIV points leader Talor Gooch – one of the hottest players in the game – fall from 57th to 63rd despite consecutive wins at LIV Adelaide and LIV Singapore.

More and more pundits and fans are turning to Data Golf to rank the players in order of current ability, a site on which Gooch ranks 27th, two behind Dustin Johnson, 81st on the OWGR.

Shipnuck concludes that things will soon have to aline:

“A more inclusive OWGR is the only thing that makes sense. Anti-LIV folks can get hung up on specific wording in the moldy criteria of the OWGR bylaws, but these are unprecedented times and a little flexibility is the best path forward…especially for the OWGR, which will render itself obsolete if it doesn’t follow its mission to rank all professional golfers.”