The LIV Golf League’s long-awaited quest for Official World Golf Ranking recognition has arrived, but it is coming with considerable restrictions that will see only the top 10 finishers in LIV Golf events receiving ranking points and will be classified as “small field tournaments.”
LIV Golf begins its fifth season Wednesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and initially sought ranking points at its inception in 2022. But it was denied by the OWGR board in October 2023 and did not reapply until July of last year.
During that time, LIV CEO Scott O’Neil and OWGR chairman Trevor Immelman have been in frequent communication as the former Masters champion has attempted to bridge the gap between the head of LIV Golf and the seven voting members of the board.
Immelman described the process as “incredibly complex.”
“Ranking points will be allocated to the top-10 finishers [and ties] in LIV Golf’s individual stroke play events, which recognizes there are a number of areas where LIV Golf does not meet the eligibility standards set out by OWGR,” the organization said in a statement.
“LIV Golf events will be ranked based on OWGR’s standard classification of ‘Small Field Tournaments’ with a ‘Ranking points distribution cutoff’ applied to award points to players who finish in the top 10 [and ties]. Players who finish lower than 10th will not receive OWGR points and those points will not be redistributed to the players finishing 10th or higher.
“The Board’s overriding aim was to identify an equitable way of ranking the best men’s players in the world, including the top performing players in LIV Golf, while taking account of the eligibility standards that LIV Golf does not currently meet and the fact that it operates differently from other ranked tours in a number of respects.”
Official World Golf Ranking Board Announces Decision on LIV Golf Application.
Read more here – https://t.co/31gNGJmhXg#OWGR#OfficialWorldGolfRanking pic.twitter.com/l6Ijo2fm66
— OWGR (@OWGRltd) February 3, 2026
Based on various projections, LIV Golf’s event in Riyadh will see the winner get approximately 23 ranking points, which is similar to many DP World Tour events but fewer than PGA Tour opposite events and roughly half of a regular event.
This week’s WM Phoenix Open, for example, is projected to get 59 points to the winner. Next week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a signature event, is likely to be in the high 60s.
LIV Golf responded to the OWGR announcement Tuesday afternoon calling it a “long-over moment of recognition” but took issue with the limited points.
“Under these rules, a player finishing 11th in a LIV Golf event is treated the same as a player finishing 57th. Limiting points to only the top 10 finishers disproportionately harms players who consistently perform at a high level but finish just outside that threshold, as well as emerging talent working to establish themselves on the world stage–precisely the players a fair and meritocratic ranking system is designed to recognize.
“No other competitive tour or league in OWGR history has been subjected to such a restriction.“
LIV Golf statement on OWGR decision pic.twitter.com/YUuWQ2wAvU
— LIV Golf (@livgolf_league) February 3, 2026
The OWGR is a key criteria for all of the major championships. The Masters takes the top 50 in the OWGR at the end of the calendar year and the week prior to the tournament.
The PGA Championship does not have a published OWGR exemption category but typically takes all players among the top 100.
The U.S. Open uses the top 60 at two points in the weeks leading up to the tournament, while the British Open takes the top 50 two months before the championship.
Bryson DeChambeau was the only LIV Golf player in the top 50 in the world ranking at the end of 2025. | Christine Tannous/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Had LIV Golf been receiving full points in 2025, based on LIV results and those of tournaments around the world, six of its players would have been ranked among the top 50 at the end of the year. Instead three players—Bryson DeChambeau, Tyrrell Hatton and Patrick Reed—were among the top 50 in the OWGR.
A total of 15 players would have been ranked in the OWGR top 100 at the end of the year if LIV golfers had been receiving points.
Only five were in the top 100 at the end of 2025: DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Patrick Reed and Tom McKibbin.
At the time that LIV Golf was denied in 2023, then-chairman Peter Dawson explained that the decision was “entirely technical. LIV players are self-evidently good enough to be ranked. They’re just not playing in a format where they can be ranked equitably with the other 24 tours and thousands of players to compete on them.”
It’s been clear that LIV’s team-oriented system does not properly relegate and promote players in the eyes of the OWGR.
In his letter to LIV Golf at the time, Dawson said that “in order to obtain inclusion in the OWGR system, it is necessary for you to develop a structure that invites new players on objective, recent performance and relegates under-performing players more quickly and equitably.”
How LIV Golf has adjusted its format for ranking consideration
Although Dawson at the time said that 54-hole, no-cut events as well as a smaller field size were not deterrents, LIV Golf has since gone to 72-hole tournaments this year. The OWGR accounts for no cut events but gives fewer points. And LIV is increasing its fields from what started as 48 players to now 57 players.
LIV has also expanded its “relegation zone” from six players to 11, meaning those who finish from spots 47 to 57 in the individual standings will be dropped from the league in 2027 and required to earn their way back via a Promotions event or via the International Series on the Asian Tour.
The league also increased those pathways this year, adding spots at both the Promotions tournament (to three) and via the International Series (to two) with five new players joining the league.
A sticking point for the OWGR is the fact that LIV Golf dropped four players who finished better than its relegation zone but were replaced for hand-picked players in order to better brand their teams.
LIV has 13 teams of four members each and since its inception, players in the lock zone (the top 24 and now top 34) have been safe from being bumped from the league. But players in the open zone—now 35 to 46—face the possibility of being removed, just as players in other team sports could be dropped.
Trevor Immelman played a pivotal role in LIV’s new arrangement with the OWGR. | Rob Schumacher, Rob Schumacher / USA TODAY NETWORK
Among the issues that OWGR has with LIV’s application, it noted that “LIV’s Golf’s average field size of 57 for 2026 versus the minimum of 75 set out in OWGR Regulations; exclusively no-cut events; the restrictive pathways to join LIV Golf with two spots filled from the Asian Tour’s International Series and three from a ‘closed’ promotions event which does not offset the turnover of players exiting the league; self-selection of players with players being recruited rather than earning their place on the tour in many cases and, in recent days, the addition/removal of players to/from teams based on their nationality rather than for meritocratic reasons.”
Immelman, who is non-voting member of the OWGR board, said in a statement:
“This has been an incredibly complex and challenging process and one which we have devoted a huge amount of time and energy to resolving in the seven months since LIV Golf submitted their application. We fully recognized the need to rank the top men’s players in the world but at the same time had to find a way of doing so that was equitable to the thousands of other players competing on other tours that operate with established meritocratic pathways.
“We believe we have found a solution that achieves these twin aims and enables the best-performing players at LIV Golf events to receive OWGR points. I would like to acknowledge the substantial and constructive efforts made by Scott O’Neil and the team at LIV Golf. We look forward to working with them on implementing this approach with immediate effect for the 2026 LIV Golf season.”
The OWGR board is comprised of Will Jones, executive director at Augusta National; Nick Dastey, PGA Tour of Australasia general manager of tournaments & global tour relationships; Guy Kinnings, CEO of the DP World Tour; Kerry Haigh, chief championships officer for the PGA of America; Jay Monahan, commissioner of the PGA Tour; Mark Darbon, CEO of the R&A; and Mike Whan, CEO of the USGA.
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