The door has cracked to major championship eligibility for LIV’s players — but only slightly.
On Tuesday, the Official World Golf Ranking (or OWGR) announced it had accepted LIV’s application for membership, allowing the league to receive world ranking points for the first time and opening a critical pathway to major championship eligibility. According to the OWGR’s release, LIV’s events will start receiving world ranking points effective immediately, beginning with this week’s season-opening event in Riyadh, but those points will be limited to top 10 finishers and ties.
“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,” OWGR chairman Trevor Immelman said in a statement. “We fully recognized 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.”
World ranking points are golf’s primary methodology for determining eligibility into each of the sport’s four major championships, aiming to provide an objective ranking of the top players from tours across the world. LIV’s initial application for inclusion in the OWGR was rejected in October of 2023 on the basis that the league lacked a sufficient promotion/relegation pathway. The league has since expanded its promotion/relegation pathway and expanded its events to 72 holes in part to accommodate the OWGR’s requests.
Tuesday’s announcement ends a yearslong saga for LIV. The lack of major championship eligibility proved a roadblock for the upstarts in attracting new talent, though the major championships worked to create new pathways for high-performing LIV players to compete in golf’s biggest events, awarding exemptions to pros like Joaquin Niemann and Talor Gooch on account of their skill level.
What does the announcement mean for LIV and its PGA Tour counterparts? We dive into the five biggest questions below.
Officially, LIV will receive limited points from the OWGR for each of its events, especially when compared to the PGA Tour. And how limited? Only the top 10 finishers in each LIV event will earn points from the OWGR, and the share of points given to each LIV winner will be roughly equal to the points given to a PGA Tour alternate-field event winner (or roughly one-third the share of points given to the winner of this week’s WM Phoenix Open).
“Ranking points will be allocated to the top-10 finishers (and ties) in LIV Golf’s individual stroke play events,” the OWGR’s statement reads. “Which recognizes there are a number of areas where LIV Golf does not meet the eligibility standards set out by OWGR.”
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A handful of reasons, but primarily because the OWGR deemed that LIV fits into the “small-field tournaments” classification, which stipulates that only the top-10 finishers and ties earn world ranking points. Given LIV’s no-cut nature, its average field size of 57 (vs. the OWGR minimum of 75), and its improved (but still limited) promotion and relegation pathways, the OWGR felt that league had not done enough to earn the Tour’s “standard event” designation.
Not exactly.
For LIV, the OWGR decision represents a major barrier cleared, granting major championship access to its players. But the decision also amounts to a half-measure — providing points to only a handful of pros and providing winners with a significantly smaller share relative to the PGA Tour. That’s better than nothing, but it’s not enough to fully quell LIV’s feeling that its best players have been underrated relative to the OWGR — as the league’s statement implied.
“This outcome is unprecedented,” LIV’s statement read. “Under these rules, a player finishing 11th in a LIV Golf event is treated the same as a player finishing 57th [on the PGA Tour]. No other competitive tour or league in OWGR history has been subjected to such a restriction.”
It’s likely neither side is overly thrilled about the news.
For the PGA Tour, the OWGR decision represents the loss of a critical upper-hand on LIV — access to the majors — but preserves the Tour’s broader argument that it remains the easiest path to major championship success.
In response to the OWGR’s announcement, the Tour released a curt statement thanking OWGR chairman Trevor Immelman and acknowledging that the Tour “respects” the OWGR’s decision.
Not really. News on LIV’s OWGR status had been expected for several weeks, with LIV CEO Scott O’Neil hinting in several interviews at the end of 2025 that the league expected to receive world ranking status as soon as the new year.
Yes — but not for LIV or the PGA Tour. The primary beneficiaries of Tuesday’s announcement are the governing bodies behind each of the major championships.
LIV’s incompatibility with the OWGR always presented an unusual issue for golf. The four major championships each lean upon the OWGR for help in assembling the strongest possible field, but LIV’s exclusion meant that many players who would otherwise be major championship eligible no longer fit the qualification.
Far from it! The OWGR’s statement acknowledged that LIV has already engaged with the OWGR about future changes to the league aimed at improving its world ranking status, and suggested the OWGR will adjust its standards accordingly.
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