A crazy loophole has led certain LIV golfers to bag five ut of six DP World Tour victories. These golfers didn’t have a membership in the tour and could only play due to sponsor exemptions. For example, Louis Oosthuizen came out victorious at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open with a final score of 17 under was two shots ahead of Laurie Canter, marking his second consecutive win. He also bagged the title of the Alfred Dunhill Championship with an 18-under just six days earlier.
Oosthuizen’s joined LIV Golf in 2022 and consequently gave up his DP World Tour membership. His recent performance took his DP World Tour wins to 11, with two back-to-back wins for the first time in his career. Apart from Oosthuizen, two other LIV golfers had similar luck on the DP World Tour. Who are these golfers?
LIV Golfers Outshine at the DP World Tour
Joaquin Niemann came out victorious at the Australian Open after defeating Hoshino Rikuya in the playoffs with one stroke. Dean Burmester also won at Houghton Golf Club with an 18-under. Following that win, Burmester bagged the title of the South African Open. Thus, with Oosthuizen’s two wins, Burmester’s two wins, and Niemann’s one title, five triumphs were grabbed by golfers playing on the Saudi-backed league. Only Min Woo Lee was the sole member of the tour to clinch the Australian PGA Championship.
All of these LIV golfers were no longer members of the DP World Tour after they joined LIV, but sponsors’ exemptions into events allowed these golfers to amp up their career wins and thus move up on the OWGR. This crazy loophole is what these LIV golfers are taking advantage of.
Oosthuizen’s back-to-back wins were quite unexpected, given he hasn’t sealed a trophy since 2018. In an interview, he stated how strange golf was.
“The last five weeks I’ve not done a lot with golf…when I got to Leopard Creek…I started hitting it really good and I know I’m putting well and then I just carried on with that momentum.”
As a result of bagging world ranking points coming from their DP World Tour wins, the rankings took the greatest jump for these players. For instance, Oosthuizen was sitting at 441 before his wins but later became 133rd on the ranking list. Also, Burmester and Nirmann stood at 154th and 87th, moving on to 75th and 59th respectively.
Now, the golfer roster is looking forward to the framework of the new entity, which will be an amalgamation of the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and LIV Golf. The finalization date for the framework agreement is set to be the 31st of December, and after Jon Rahm defected to LIV, there might be some last minute unexpected changes happening on the agreement.
