When LIV Golf pulled its application seeking to be recognized by the Official World Golf Ranking last week, the move curiously proved to unite professional golfers in at least one way.
Nobody seems to like the world ranking. Even some of the PGA Tour’s brightest stars who are near the top of the list joined their LIV rivals in finding fault with the world order.
That’s probably not how golf’s leaders envisioned reuniting the fractured professional game.
As Global Golf Post’s Ron Green Jr. reported Tuesday for GGP+, LIV ended its nearly two-year stalemate with the OWGR by yanking its application for inclusion in the world order. The team component of LIV’s model, which features 54-hole, no-cut events, proved to be a non-starter with the OWGR. That leaves LIV players with hopes of competing in major championships scrambling for a back door to qualify for exemptions, often via ranking points on the Asian Tour.
“Anybody who watches golf can tell who the best players in the world are,” reigning Masters champion Jon Rahm, who remains No. 3 in the world after having joined LIV late last year, said before LIV’s tournament last week in Hong Kong, “and obviously I don’t think the ranking is reflective of that right now to its entirety.”
Many of the Spaniard’s former PGA Tour colleagues agreed with him.
“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 them,” American Xander Schauffele, who is No. 5 in the world, said before the PGA Tour’s Arnold Palmer Invitational. “So, they’re just sort of unranked right now, but to me, I do believe they’re definitely top-ranked players in the world.”
Added England’s Matt Fitzpatrick, the 2022 U.S. Open champion and No. 9 player in the world: “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.”
American Patrick Cantlay called for change, even if LIV no longer appears to be seeking it.
“I don’t know if ‘broken’ is the right word,” said Cantlay, who is sixth in the world, “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.”
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which bankrolls LIV Golf, remains in discussions with the PGA Tour to finalize the “framework agreement” of June 6. Should the rivals come to terms and LIV gains some sort of an association with the PGA Tour, admission to OWGR could be a result despite last week’s move by LIV. READ MORE
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Tiger Woods will not be competing in this week’s Players Championship, according to the PGA Tour, which confirmed the field list late Friday.
Woods, 48, whose record-tying 82 PGA Tour victories include two Players titles, has not competed since he withdrew after 24 holes of the Genesis Invitational on February 16, with what he later said was the flu. In his past six starts, dating to the 2022 Masters, Woods has three WDs, a missed cut and no result better than a T45 as he struggled with the effects of multiple surgeries after a single-vehicle rollover crash in early 2021. He did not compete in last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in Orlando, Florida, where he has won a record eight times.
His next potential start would seem to be in four weeks at the Masters, which he has won five times, most recently in 2019.
Meanwhile, on the 50th anniversary of the Players Championship, the PGA Tour’s premier event will be significantly diminished by the absence of LIV Golf members who have been suspended by the tour. Australia’s Cameron Smith, who won the 2022 Players before adding that year’s Open Championship title, and Jon Rahm, the reigning Masters champion, are among the prominent LIV players ineligible to compete at TPC Sawgrass. Scottie Scheffler, the world No. 1 and defending champion, headlines the Players field, which also includes past winners Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler. READ MORE
Roger Maltbie and Gary Koch will return to the broadcast this week at the Players Championship. Maltbie and Koch were dropped by NBC after the 2022 season after decades as commentators. Maltbie will work as an on-course reporter on Thursday and Friday for the first two rounds, and Koch will join Mike Tirico in the broadcast booth at TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course. READ MORE
The PGA Tour established a 13-member board of directors for its new PGA Tour Enterprises, the for-profit business launched with private-equity investment, and installed Tiger Woods as vice chairman.
Woods and the five other player directors on the PGA Tour Policy Board – Patrick Cantlay, Peter Malnati, Adam Scott, Webb Simpson and Jordan Spieth – will serve simultaneously on the new board. Former tour player Joe Ogilvie also will join the Policy Board and the new panel. Tour commissioner Jay Monahan will be the chairman, with independent director Joe Gorder also landing a board spot.
Four directors from Strategic Sports Group, which committed up to $3 billion in investment in PGA Tour Enterprises, were included on the board. READ MORE
TAP-INS
Joaquín Niemann has accepted an exemption to play in the PGA Championship, he told GolfWRX’s Matt Vincenzi. The PGA of America had yet to announce the news. Niemann, 25, of Chile, followed his victory at the Australian Open late last year by winning twice this year on LIV Golf. He recently received a special exemption from Augusta National to play in the Masters despite not ranking among the top 50 in the world because LIV does not receive points from the Official World Golf Ranking. READ MORE
For 12 years, Anthony Kim disappeared from the PGA Tour and made zero starts in professional golf. Now, Kim is on the verge of competing three weeks in a row. Kim, 38, made his highly publicized return to pro golf two weeks ago at LIV Golf Jeddah, finishing last among the 53 players who completed all three rounds. Last week at LIV Golf Hong Kong, he closed with a 5-under 65 but still finished 50th in the 54-man field. This week, he will compete in the Asian Tour’s International Series Macau. The Asian Tour, unlike LIV Golf, receives Official World Golf Ranking points, so fellow Americans Patrick Reed and Pat Perez will be among at least 20 LIV players expected to compete. READ MORE
Canadian Mike Weir, who will captain the International team in the Presidents Cup this fall in front of a home crowd at Royal Montreal, intends to implore his countrymen “to make it feel like a real away game” for the Americans, he said in an interview with Golf Digest’s Dave Shedloski. The U.S. has won nine consecutive matches in dominating the biennial series, which the Americans lead, 12-1-1. Weir confirmed that LIV Golf players, who have been ruled ineligible to compete on the PGA Tour, will not play in the tour-owned Presidents Cup. READ MORE
The R&A has lowered the age exemption for future Open champions, beginning with this year’s 152nd Open winner at Royal Troon. Winners of the Open will now be exempt until they are 55, compared to previous winners who will continue to be exempt until they’re 60. The R&A had previously reduced the age limit for past champions from 65 to 60 in 2007. Also, the R&A has added five spots from its International Federation Ranking to players from the Asian, Japan, Sunshine and Australasia tours. READ MORE
The NXXT Golf Tour adopted a policy that competitors on the Florida-based women’s mini-tour must be biological female at birth. The news, released Friday on International Women’s Day, presents a significant roadblock to transgender golfer Hailey Davidson, who won an NXXT Golf tournament this year and was on track to earn one of the tour’s exemptions to the LPGA’s developmental Epson Tour, Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols reported. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon