LIV Golf has Discovered a Path to Obtaining Official World Golf Ranking Points
LIV Golf players might gain ranking points by forging a strategic partnership with the up-and-coming Mena Tour, which last competed before to the coronavirus outbreak. But a lot of issues persist.
Bangkok — In an effort to increase its Official World Golf Ranking position, the LIV Golf Invitational Series has formed a “strategic collaboration” with the Mena Tour.
The arrangement with the Dubai-based circuit would allow players competing in this week’s LIV Golf event in Bangkok to gain points both through next year’s 13-event individual schedule and the Dubai Daily Telegraph reported on this on Wednesday.
The LIV Golf event this week is not included among the circuits collecting points on the Official World Golf Ranking website.
Although a LIV Golf spokeswoman assured Sports Illustrated that details would be released soon, the company has not made any official statements about the situation. At a pro-am celebration on Wednesday, the players were informed of the arrangement.
The strategic partnership was disclosed on the Mena Tour website on Wednesday.
Though it is not certain if this will happen before the tournament’s start on Friday, a source informed SI that OWGR officials have responded favourably to the change.
If accurate, the move is an intriguing tactic for LIV Golf, which has been vocal about its desire for its players to receive points toward the world rankings. 50 players who have competed in LIV events recently submitted a letter to Peter Dawson, the chairman of the Official World Golf Ranking committee. The letter stated that “an OWGR without LIV would be inadequate and misleading.”
The Mena Tour, which performs at venues around the Middle East and North Africa, has been postponed ever since the coronavirus outbreak started. It is rumoured that it would begin a 15-event wraparound season in 2022–2023, with the LIV Golf Bangkok event serving as the opening event. It’s thought that LIV Golf was given a chance because the Mena Tour, which stands for Middle East North Africa Tour, has remained dormant.
According to a press release from Mena Tour commissioner David Spencer, “Today is a very exciting day for the Mena Tour and our players.” “Our players will now have better playing opportunities and stronger routes thanks to this cooperation. For the future of many of the young players on our Tour, this is fantastic news.
Prior to the season-ending team championship at the end of the month, LIV Golf will play one more regular event in Saudi Arabia the following week.
According to the Telegraph article, the Mena Tour, which will include another 15 tournaments and be open to LIV Golf players, will include the 13 separate events on the LIV programme for 2023.
The Mena Tour’s tournaments feature a total purse of $75,000, which is $45,000 less than what the last-place finisher in a 48-man LIV field receives. However, the Mena Tour’s website contains no tournament calendar for the years 2022 through 2023. $25 million is the total purse for the LIV tournaments, of which $20 million goes to the individual players and $4 million to the victor.
The Asian Tour and LIV Golf already work together, and LIV Golf is supporting the International Series, a collection of upscale tournaments on that circuit with increased prizes and a narrow window for top players to advance—and be demoted—between the International Series and LIV. LIV Golf has received approval from the Asian Tour, which also sponsored their request for points toward the global ranking.
It’s still unclear how the OWGR would permit LIV to earn points in this way. Whether there is a route from the developing circuit to LIV Golf, or at least into the Asian Tour, is still up for debate.
And based on a variety of standards given by the OWGR, LIV Golf continues to have a number of obvious shortcomings. There are disadvantages associated with playing 54-hole events with only 48 players and no cut. The majority of the players signed contracts to be a member of the league and cannot be replaced, hence there is no real access to LIV tournaments.
LIV Golf competitions would not currently earn a lot of points. The OWGR implemented a more thorough rating system that went into effect in August after several years of making changes to its plans. It is already clear that the number of points for minor field events is dropping.
To give one example, Rory McIlroy earned 38 points for winning the 30-player Tour Championship (and having the low 72-hole score). In the previous round, Kevin Na and Jon Rahm both scored 51 points and shared the low score of 72 holes.
The same thing will happen in December at the Hero World Challenge, where less points will be awarded to the 20-player field.