LIV Golf player Carlos Ortiz claims players were promised OWGR points while signing for the league
The decision to move over to LIV Golf, something Carlos Ortiz and many others have made in the last few years, comes with several considerations. Chief among them is the decision to forego any increase in OWGR ranking.
They have to contend with the potential punishments from the other tours they left behind, as well as the inability to return if they later change their mind.
However, according to Ortiz, the OWGR points shouldn’t have been an issue. In fact, he’s claiming that the players were told they would have ranking points eventually.
Oritz said in a podcast interview via Subpar:
“They definitely said that we were gonna get them. We haven’t got them. But I just feel that people have to recognise that there is good players here, you know.”
To LIV’s credit, they did try to get them. They have gone back and forth with the Official World Golf Ranking trying to get their events recognized, but they’ve had no luck.
It doesn’t seem like an impossible move, but the leader of that decision-making process has stated that the format is simply too different from the PGA Tour’s to grant points.
OWGR president Peter Dawson said:
“This is about, should a tour whose formats are so different and whose qualification criteria are so different, can they be ranked equitably with other tours who conform to the OWGR norm and have more competition to them than perhaps the closed shop that is LIV?”
Greg Norman and company have attempted to get the points they allegedly promised to players, but they’ve had no luck. Unless they change things drastically or the world ranking system decides to find a way to acquiesce, those points aren’t coming any time soon.
OWGR points continue to be major issue on LIV Golf
The inability to rank up on LIV has been a major talking point over the years. When Cameron Smith, a former World No. 3 golfer, defected, he understood that it would be hard to get points, but lamented the fact that he’d never get to see that number one spot.
Phil Mickelson didn’t believe that OWGR would ever give points to LIV events, and several other golfers, including Carlos Ortiz, aren’t all that happy without the points.
It’s always been a huge talking point, but this is the first time someone has admitted that they were told they would get them.
LIV Golf has also considered getting their own points system, but it wouldn’t be the same. They wouldn’t be compared to their PGA Tour counterparts. While maybe Brooks Koepka or Talor Gooch would be atop the LIV points list, they wouldn’t necessarily be atop the OWGR list in the same fashion.
Maybe in the future, especially with the merger and the PIF agreement coming at some point, things would get a little smoother on this front. Perhaps OWGR will find a way to rank them alongside the rest of the world. For now though, it’s not happening.
“Everyone knows who everyone is that has said certain things” – Ian Poulter takes a dig at PGA Tour after saying he feels bad for Rory McIlroy
