“LIV Players Replaced By ‘Jimmy-No-Names’ In World Rankings”: Rory McIlroy’s Former Agent Gives His Take On LIV Golf’s Impact On Golf

Rory McIlroy‘s former agent Chubby Chandler, thinks that the LIV golfers are replaced by ‘Jimmy No-Names’ in the world rankings. He also reflected on his opinion on the current state of golf. The former agent was recently in the headlines for giving his views on Rory McIlroy’s chances of switching the league following the PGAT-PIF negotiations. 

And now, he has addressed another vital issue, which is Rory McIlroy’s disinterest in the game after the inception of LIV Golf. That is because LIV has attracted several MVP golfers and since the rival league doesn’t provide world ranking points, its players have been constantly falling on the OWGR leaderboard. Chandler went ahead and spoke about how these top positions have been filled with unpopular entities after big-shot golfers defected to the Saudi-backed league.

Rory McIlroy’s Former Agent Is Discontent With The World Golf Ranking System

Chandler began by expressing how the weight of the PGA Tour fields was directly proportional to the TV fees and how that had drasctically changed following player defections to LIV. 

“The money the PGA Tour gets from TV fees is based on weight of field from the world rankings. Well their weighted field has gone up because they got rid of 20 players, it’s not gone down it’s gone up.”

Chandler targetted the OWGR and said how the top golfers were now being replaced in rankings by small-nobody’s.

“All those LIV players have been replaced by people, Jimmy No-names. The PGA Tour has still got all these guys in the world rankings, but they’ve got rid of Cam Smith, Louis Ooosthuizen and the non-Americans so for them it has been stronger. How can you have that? You can’t have world rankings that favour the Americans, which is what it has done the last few years”

Moreover, Chubby also thinks that McIlroy’s disinterest in the PGA Tour has developed after he expressed that he felt like a ‘sacrificial lamb’ during the PGAT-PIF battle and ultimately feeling left out during the merger.

“Last year took an awful lot out of him and suddenly he got let down and he’s finding it hard to get back up again. That’s what it looks like to me.”

Chubby strongly believes that Rory missed that spark this year. Also, the politics of the golf world greatly affected the four-time major winner’s decision to step down from his Player director position. However, McIlroy is in the field of the Players Championship with Viktor Hovland and Jordan Spieth and it will be interesting to see whether Chandler is right about the Irishman or not. 

About the author

Suchita Chakraborty

Suchita Chakraborty is a senior golf writer at The SportsRush. She did her post-graduation at St. Xavier's University. For a year now, she has developed a riveting inclination toward golf, with Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy being her top-tier motivational figures to indulge in the sport. She even lives by the words of the Hall of Famer, "You can always become better", which impels her to excel every day. Her strong suit in golf is covering the LPGA Tour, especially the nooks and crannies of the international event, the Solheim Cup. As a pastime amusement, Suchita also engages herself in reading about golf controversies. Her favorite pick is ‘LIV and Let Die’ by Alan Shipnuck, which covers the PGA-LIV beef.

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