Consider this hypothetical issue for tennis. A new men’s tour is set up, separate from the ATP
Tour. Some players like Alexander Zverev, Casper Ruud, and Jack Draper are among the top
names to join the new tour. As the ATP Tour refuses to give ranking points to players playing
for the latest tour, it throws the concept of official rankings into chaos.

Does this sound familiar? It’s more or less what has happened to golf and the OWGR (Official World Golf Ranking) system. Players are not earning ranking points when playing on the breakaway LIV Tour, which was set up a few years back, so their ranking suffers compared to those on traditional tours like the PGA and European Tour. 

As most sports fans will tell you, ranking systems can be pretty complicated, often based on periods of play over a couple of years. So, in terms of golf, as more players have left to join LIV Golf, it can take a while to filter through to the OWGR system. And the impact is felt more and more today. 
 

Rahm’s world ranking shows that the rankings system is broken. 

Let’s give an example: Jon Rahm, undoubtedly one of the world’s greatest players and one of the Masters betting odds favorites this year. Rahm is currently ranked at number 80 in OWGR. This is no indication of his talent or form. Similarly, one of the world’s most in-form players, Joaquin Niemann, is ranked at 89. You can look at it another way: Aaron Rai – a decent, but not spectacular, English golfer who plays mainly on the European Tour – is ranked more than 50 places ahead of multiple Major winner Rahm on the world rankings. With all due respect to Rai, it makes little sense from an impartial ranking metric. 

There is a perception, then, that players are being punished (at least, that is how they see it) for playing on the LIV Golf tour. Now, as you can imagine, there is not a massive amount of sympathy for them. The reason these players joined LIV in the first place was financial, and they have – and will – receive more prize money than they would have done on the traditional tours. 

OWGR needs a reset 

Yet, raw data presents a problem for OWGR and those who use these rankings to gauge success. Players on LIV’s books can improve their OWGR standing when they do well in or win a Major (Bryson DeChambeau did so last year), but the vast majority of players will see their rankings decline overall. As fans, judging any measure of proper form isn't easy.



 

This impacts golf in two ways. To start with, as we mentioned, OWGR has become much more weighted toward traditional tours. You have to look at the ranking and consider that there should be an asterisk beside every player. Secondly, we have a situation where players who would usually qualify for Majors based on ranking won’t make it. All golf majors invite players based on a combination of world ranking and historical performances at that significant, i.e., previous winners will be invited back. 

It narrows the pool for LIV players and, arguably, allows inferior players from the traditional tours to qualify based on their ranking. This becomes a headache for Major tournaments marketing themselves as featuring the world’s best players. Yes, those at the very top will always probably make it, but the field, in general, could be diluted. 

Much has been made of the schism between LIV and the traditional tours, but something must be done regarding rankings – even if that means ripping up the system. As you might expect, rival ranking systems, including The Universal Golf Ranking (TUGR), are coming to the fore, which aim to represent the fact that some of the world’s best players now play for the LIV Golf Tour. Yet, the current system feels messy, and players and fans might feel short-changed regarding the most essential elements of golf data. Even if you don’t like LIV, golf’s ranking system is supposed to be impartial. Today, it isn’t.