“Our players are justifying their places” - LIV chief asks Majors to create a new exemption category for their golfers

A LIV Golf Tour executive recently lashed out strongly against the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) system as he felt the current ranking is "inaccurate" and has "little credibility".

The ultimate intention of these statements is to demand that the current mechanism for qualifying for the majors be modified. Currently, the OWGR plays an essential role in this mechanism, but as LIV players do not accumulate points, it is much more difficult for them to qualify.

According to The Times, the unnamed executive said:

“We’re not sure if having OWGR points is the most representative way for players to be ranked. They’ve lost a lot of credibility and a huge amount of accuracy.

“There is more pressure on the OWGR to sort it out for their own credibility than for us, but if the majors want the best fields, there is a limited period where they can use OWGR as an exemption category.”

An alternative was proposed by the executive - awarding the highest-ranked LIV Golf Tour players of the season spots in the majors.

“It would seem fair if the top 15 from our rankings get into the majors. About a third of our field has competed at the majors this year," the executive said.

“A lot are exempt already, but I think that would solve a lot of problems for OWGR and the majors, as well as being valuable for LIV. Our players are justifying their places and proving our events are good enough,” he added.

What has happened with LIV players in major tournaments?

LIV Golf launched its first season in June 2022. From that date until today, four major tournaments have been held. Two of those have been won by the new circuit players - the 2022 Open Championship (Cam Smith) and the LPGA Championship (Brooks Koepka).

In addition to those two champions, the four aforementioned major tournament editions have seen two players finish as runner-up, six others in the top 10, and eight more in the top 25. In total, 18 players (out of a total of 48) from the Saudi circuit have finished in privileged positions.

The presence of LIV golfers in major tournaments will continue at the next U.S. Open. With the last qualifying tournaments still to be completed, 16 players from that circuit have already secured their presence at Los Angeles.

Under the current OWGR system, all competitive activity in the "Saudi circuit" does not receive any points towards the world ranking. This has led to players such as Brooks Koepka or Bryson DeChambeau, with great results in the most recent major tournaments, being ranked notably far from the top.

This, in turn, is the reason why the LIV Golf authorities call the OWGR "inaccurate" and are calling for the implementation of a new system.