Chess Match Between LIV Golf and OWGR Frustrates DeChambeau and Koepka

LIV Golf stars won’t be earning Official World Golf Ranking points as they thought they may have in Thailand this week and likely not in Saudi Arabia next week, either. The final LIV event of 2022 is a team competition, so it’s a very real scenario that golfers may not be able to earn any ranking points until 2023.

The chess match that played out this week between LIV and the OWGR has some star golfers frustrated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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First, LIV thought it had a sure path to earning ranking points by partnering up with the somewhat-obscure MENA Tour (Middle East and North African Tour), which is a feeder league to the Asian Tour but hasn’t staged an event since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The OWGR, apparently, isn’t sure about the legitimacy of this partnership and explained in a statement that it will have to review the partnership. The issue appears to be holding 54-hole events with no cut.

Source familiar with the workings of the OWGR panel told @GolfDigest it’s unlikely OWGR will award points for this week’s LIV event, saying that an alliance with another tour doesn’t initiate automatic inclusion of LIV Golf in the World Ranking,

— Joel Beall (@JoelMBeall) October 5, 2022

After Friday’s first round of the LIV Golf event in Thailand, both Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka vented some frustration at the process.

DeChambeau feels that goalposts are being moved:

“I mean, they are delaying the inevitable… We’ve hit every mark in their criteria. So, for us not to get points is kind of crazy with, at least, I believe [we have], the top players in the world. Not all of them, but we certainly believe there is enough that are in the top 50, and we deserve to be getting world ranking points.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Koepka is just looking for some clarity, stating:

“I just hate when you sit on the fence, just pick a side. Yes or no, just pick one. So, I’m not a big fan of that. Not to say something to where it’s not really an answer and, ‘We’ll think about it,’ I don’t agree with. Just pick a side if it’s yes, if it’s no – that’s fine, and we’ll figure it out from there.”

After round 1 of the event in Bangkok, Branden Grace, Richard Bland, and Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra were tied for the lead at -7. Co-favorites Dustin Johnson and Cameron Smith were not in the top 20 after the opening 18 holes.

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