LIV golfers proceed to plummet down the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR).
Since the Saudi-backed circuit just isn’t an formally sanctioned tour within the eyes of the OWGR, gamers on LIV can’t obtain OWGR factors in LIV Golf occasions. They can solely earn factors from main championships, DP World Tour occasions, or Asian Tour occasions.
The league employs a 54-hole, shotgun-start format, no cuts, and a restricted discipline.
“LIV players are self-evidently good enough to be ranked,” mentioned Peter Dawson, the previous R&A Chief and present chairman of the OWGR board in October.
“They’re just not playing in a format where they can be ranked equitably with the other 24 tours and thousands of players trying to compete on them.”
And but, LIV golfers have been advised by LIV Golf executives that they would obtain OWGR factors in the event that they joined the league.
“They definitely said that we were going to get them, and we haven’t gotten them,” defined Carlos Ortiz on the Subpar Podcast with Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz.
The OWGR continues to not award LIV Golf any factors at any of their occasions, regardless of its excessive caliber fields that now embody Jon Rahm, Tyrell Hatton, and Adrian Meronk.
Ortiz expanded upon this subject, saying that golf’s governing our bodies have to discover a method to reward factors to LIV Golf, regardless of its format and transience.
“I just feel that people have to recognize that there are good players [on LIV Golf], and if you are going to have a world ranking that includes all the golf players, you have to have some people included,” Ortiz defined.
“I understand that we went out of the system, and it is going to take time to be part of the system, but if the [OWGR] is going to be accurate, they must include all kinds of players.”
Critics of the OWGR have slammed its rankings for not representing accuracy amongst skilled golfers. As a end result, many gamers, journalists, and followers alike have turned to InformationGolf as a extra correct illustration of the place gamers stand.
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Ortiz is presently the 1,229th on the planet, per the OWGR. To put his downfall in perspective, on the finish of 2021, six months earlier than he joined LIV Golf, he was 56th.
On InformationGolf, Ortiz is listed because the 125th-ranked participant on the planet, because the Mexican has recorded six top-10s throughout his LIV Golf profession.
“I’m not saying we should have gotten them from the beginning. I know there were certain rules, and I knew from the beginning that there would be consequences and setbacks, but I have accepted them,” Ortiz added.
“Obviously, I wish I could change them, and I wish we could be part of that ecosystem where we can be ranked and compete freely, not only in majors but against other players. I think there is a way, and there is definitely enough proof that we have a legitimate tour where there are good players and should be ranked.”
Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be positive to take a look at @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You can observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as properly.