The LIV Golf Invitational Series doesn’t have world rankings points which, over time, would deprive its biggest stars of qualifying for major championships.
Representatives from LIV Golf are planning to hold a meeting with the Official World Golf Rankings to legitimise the breakaway series with ranking points.
According to a report from the Guardian’s Ewan Murray, the LIV Golf Series is set to have a meeting with the OWGR on Wednesday, the day before the 150th Open Championship begins.
People from all four major organisations, as well as the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, are to decide if Greg Norman’s tour will gain world-ranking status which would be a significant boost to its attractiveness for more PGA Tour stars.
Although the LIV Golf events are only 54 holes that include 48 players, they believe this meets the criteria of qualifying for official world ranking points.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and the DP World Tour commissioner Keith Pelley will be part of the decision-making panel. Earlier this season, these figureheads extended their strategic alliance until 2035.
Martin Slumbers of the R&A, Augusta National’s Buzzy Johnson, Mike Whan of the USGA and the PGA of America’s Seth Waugh will also be involved in determining LIV Golf’s fate.
Many of the top players such as Brooks Koepka have expressed their interest in playing at major tournaments as these are the events which can cement golfers into the history of the game.
However as time goes on, LIV Golf players will lose their exemptions and chances to play golf’s four big events, unless they went through regional qualifying processes etc…
The biggest pull of the LIV Golf Invitational Series is the money which is being provided by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. In two events in the UK and America, the series has dished out $50 million in prize money.
Monahan has admitted that the American circuit cannot financially compete and it may become more difficult if the LIV Golf Series gained the legitimacy it so craves from the OWGR.
Article originally appeared on: Golfmagic.com
LIV is highly compensated exhibition play not something you have to earn or qualify to participate.
I suspect this meeting is preliminary to one of many lawsuits to be filed in the near future, against all that vote not to grant world ranking points.
They should be allowed to compete for World ranking points! This has become too crazy and once legalities kick in, it’s going be difficult to turn back. Let’s come together and make something collectively happen which will be good for the game of golf which looks to have been lost in these discussions. I’m sure everyone will be able to reap some financial benefit from a collective bargaining approach and also retain sanctity of GOLF
I concur whole heartedly with your point of view. It’s not like if we are still darn clean but I don’t want to get into that, golf is a universal game and a lot of players hanging around for years without scoring a big financial gain until the big stars allow room for the younger guys to come in and start making their mark by failing in the spots of the big superstars. I feel that the PGA has had a monopoly on the big stars of the game and it’s about time that they realize that, if you suppress people you will get an uprising!
I am old school and my opinion is how can you give world points to someone who plays 54 holes of exhibition golf and no cut to someone who plays 72 holes of golf, with the ability to be cut, if you dont play good enough to make the cut.