LIV golfer admits being lied to about earning Official World Golf Ranking points

LIV golfers continue to plummet down the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR).

Since the Saudi-backed circuit is not an officially sanctioned tour in the eyes of the OWGR, players on LIV cannot receive OWGR points in LIV Golf events. They can only earn points from major championships, DP World Tour events, or Asian Tour events.

The league employs a 54-hole, shotgun-start format, no cuts, and a limited field.

“LIV players are self-evidently good enough to be ranked,” said Peter Dawson, the former R&A Chief and current chairman of the OWGR board in October.

“They’re just not playing in a format where they can be ranked equitably with the other 24 tours and thousands of players trying to compete on them.”

And yet, LIV golfers were told by LIV Golf executives that they would receive OWGR points if they joined the league.

“They definitely said that we were going to get them, and we haven’t gotten them,” explained Carlos Ortiz on the Subpar Podcast with Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz.

The OWGR continues to not award LIV Golf any points at any of their events, despite its high caliber fields that now include Jon Rahm, Tyrell Hatton, and Adrian Meronk.

Ortiz expanded upon this issue, saying that golf’s governing bodies need to find a way to reward points to LIV Golf, despite its format and transience.

“I just feel that people have to recognize that there are good players [on LIV Golf], and if you are going to have a world ranking that includes all the golf players, you have to have some people included,” Ortiz explained.

“I understand that we went out of the system, and it is going to take time to be part of the system, but if the [OWGR] is going to be accurate, they must include all kinds of players.”

Critics of the OWGR have slammed its rankings for not representing accuracy among professional golfers. As a result, many players, journalists, and fans alike have turned to DataGolf as a more accurate representation of where players stand.

Photo by Khalid Alhaj/Getty Images

Ortiz is currently the 1,229th in the world, per the OWGR. To put his downfall in perspective, at the end of 2021, six months before he joined LIV Golf, he was 56th.

On DataGolf, Ortiz is listed as the 125th-ranked player in the world, as the Mexican has recorded six top-10s during his LIV Golf career.

“I’m not saying we should have gotten them from the beginning. I know there were certain rules, and I knew from the beginning that there would be consequences and setbacks, but I have accepted them,” Ortiz added.

“Obviously, I wish I could change them, and I wish we could be part of that ecosystem where we can be ranked and compete freely, not only in majors but against other players. I think there is a way, and there is definitely enough proof that we have a legitimate tour where there are good players and should be ranked.”

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.