LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman informed his players that they were done fighting with OWGR for points. So, it is officially the end of the Official World Golf Rankings receiving applications from the Saudi-backed league. However, that does not mean they do not have players who have the potential to rank among the top players in the world.
After the end of multiple year-long fights, many LIV Golfers shared their opinions regarding the same. But they were not alone. A few PGA Tour pros have also come up with their thoughts on this decision. Let’s take a look at them:
PGA Tour Players Give Their Take On LIV Golf’s Decision To End OWGR Bid
Xander Schauffele recently spoke at a press conference for the 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational. He backed some of the Saudi-backed league players to rank somewhere in the top 10 or top 25 on the OWGR. He added by saying that the rival league players were now “sort of unranked.”
“The LIV Tour definitely has really good players, and players that are in the top 10 or top 25 in the world, and there’s many of ’em. So, they’re just sort of unranked right now, but to me, I do believe they’re definitely top-ranked players in the world,” Schauffele said.
Former US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick has recently stated that he does not feel that the OWGR is the “true representation” of the game of golf. He said that he does not pay attention to the ranks as it does not feel right to him.
“I don’t think the World Rankings are a true representation of the golf game at the minute. I don’t really look at them or pay attention to them anymore. I don’t think they’re right,” Fitzpatrick said.
“I don’t pay attention to them anymore… I don’t think they’re right.”
After LIV Golf decided to rescind its appeal for Official World Golf Ranking points for its events, we asked PGA TOUR pros what they think of the current state of the world rankings. pic.twitter.com/HFr7UEDGz9
— Golf Today (@GCGolfToday) March 5, 2024
Later on, Fitzpatrick added that he opted for a different rankings representation to get a reference on who had been playing better across the world. He added that the ranking side was “a little bit skewed.”
“So I look at @datagolf as a better representation of how people are playing in the world, in my opinion. I think it’s partly a sign that there’s plenty of depth on here, which we’ve known that for years on the PGA Tour, there’s always been a lot of strength and depth, but I certainly think nowadays the ranking side of it is a little bit skewed,” Fitzpatrick added.
Finally, Matt Fitzpatrick concluded by saying that it was not right to not involve LIV Golfers in the OWGR. He chose Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka as examples to explain his claim.
“I don’t think it’s right to not have these players involved in the World Rankings. I mean, what’s Dustin Johnson in the world? I don’t even know. What’s Brooks Koepka? I just think that’s the only issue right now with the world golf rankings.”
Will Zalatoris felt that Joaquin Niemann has done well this year and LIV Golf has great players; they just need to follow the “utopian goal,”
“You see what Joaquin’s done this year, and he’s 73rd in the world. … The guy’s played some really good golf.”
Added to that, Will Zalatoris said,
“I think, you know, having to get a special exemption from Augusta, it’s just, there’s some really good players, and there’s some guys that have gone around the world and played really good golf and I think that’s something that, once we get to the majors, it will be really fun to have us all back together. But, I know that that’s kind of the utopian goal for all of us right now is to have the best players in the world play week in, week out.”
Patrick Cantlay had a different take on the OWGR board’s working system. He hesitated to call the system broken but added that there was a need to change or update the things going around.
“I think the World Rankings has a very particular set of criteria. And I don’t know if broken is the right word, but I think that there’s been so much uncertainty and change in the last couple years that it’s inevitable that things need to be updated or things need to be changed,” Cantlay said.
Before the LIV Golf Hong Kong, Jon Rahm lashed out at the OWGR board and said that they needed to change their system. Now, after multiple PGA Tour pros’ reactions, it is quite evident that the World Rankings need to recognize players from the Saudi-backed league. But it remains a big question mark if that will happen anytime soon.
