On Tuesday, LIV Golf announced that it was formerly withdrawing its application for recognition by the Official World Golf Ranking after the Saudi-backed league failed to get that recognition for years based on LIV’s format and exclusivity. And now, superstar golfer Jon Rahm is calling out the entire system.
A day after LIV Golf announced it will no longer be seeking recognition from the OWGR, Jon Rahm openly suggested that he does not agree with continuing to use the world ranking points system in the first place.
“I’m going to be honest, I didn’t know they were still trying to get world ranking points. But the one thing I can say is I’m going to back to what I said two years ago in the DP World Tour Championship,” Rahm told reporters Wednesday according to ESPN. “I didn’t think it was a good system back then. And if anything, the more time that goes on, the more it proves to be wrong.”
Under the current format, the OWGR awards points to players for their performance in events across the world. Those points help players qualify for golf’s four major tournaments: the Masters, the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open, and the Open Championship.
Without recognition by the OWGR, LIV Golf players have no clear way to organically qualify for those events.
We’ll have to see if that changes, but Rahm seems to think that it should.
[ESPN]
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