A new era: OWGR confirms LIV Golf events now qualify for world rankings

LIV Golf has finally got its wish, but also not really. It's been a sore point that the world's top players are winning tournaments but not being ranked.

Under the new OWGR rules, LIV events are classified as 'Small Field Tournaments' and a 'virtual cut' at 10th place is applied, meaning players finishing 11th or lower receive no points.

OWGR believes LIV still does not meet several eligibility standards due to closed fields, its lack of traditional cut and limited merit-based access pathways.

"After conducting an exhaustive and collaborative process, and in an effort to reflect the changing landscape of the men's professional game, the OWGR Board has made the decision to award world ranking points to LIV Golf events for the 2026 season," reads OWGR's statement in part.

"Ranking points will be allocated to the top-10 finishers (and ties) in LIV Golf's individual stroke play events, which recognises there are a number of areas where LIV Golf does not meet the eligibility standards set out by OWGR.

"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.

"This includes LIV 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."

Trevor Immelman, Chairman of OWGR, claimed the process was exhaustive.  

"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," he said.

"We fully recognised 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."