“LIV needs to fix its format” – Fans react as Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed finish top-5 at The Masters despite being low on OWGR

The 2023 Masters tournament concluded on Sunday with Jon Rahm emerging victorious, beating Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson by four strokes. However, the result started a new debate on the World Golf Rankings.

The Masters saw three LIV golf professionals, Koepka, Mickelson, and Patrick Reed finishing T2, T2, and T4, respectively. Interestingly, none of them are in the top 50 in OWGR.

Twitter handle Flushing Golf stirred a new debate on the authenticity of OWGR given the ban on Saudi-backed golfers with this tweet:

"Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed are ranked 70, 118 and 425 in the Official World Golf Rankings, but they just finished T2, T2 and T4 at the Masters. The OWGR have very obvious flaws and should no longer be used as qualification criteria for major championships!"

Golf fans had different opinions on the above statement. While some called for the required changes, others felt LIV Golf professionals deserved it and rankings shouldn't be questioned based on just one tournament.

Here's a look at a few of the reactions:

"LIV needs to fix its format. They need qualifying criteria. Then they’ll get points. Entire tour can’t be invite and players can’t be unable to lose their spot."

"It’s one tournament. Phil’s a combined over par since he started playing LIV events. Phil and Reed are past Masters champs, the course sets up well for them. 63 year old Fred Couples made the cut. It was more about the course than an inaccurate ranking."

"OWGR has to figure out the value of where you finish in a 54-hole, no-cut, 48-man field vs. where you finish in a 72-hole, 144-man field where only half make the cut. Is there a formula that can figure it out?"

"They played outstanding. And really their best collective showing in years. Hats off, but they haven’t exactly been good in recent form, either."

"Let’s not pretend that Phil has been lighting it up on LIV. If OWGR included LIV, it’s not like he’d be close to the top 10…"

"OWGR is not flawed; they are just not playing OWGR events. Phil played better than expected; hopefully for him it will continue. Brooks played great, but Rahm was just too much (probably destined to win on Seve’s birthday). Glad for Brook’s sake that he is feeling healthy again."

"They’re not really WORLD rankings, then, are they?"

"It’s not a flawed system, their tourney points just don’t count to continue to add to their rankings. They knew the drill going into LIV. They traded their legitimacy and status for money. Doesn’t make them bad players, but it does take them off the world ranking page 🤷‍♂️"

"Good. Hopefully they are relegated to their fake tour soon."

"Major invites should only be awarded for what 'feels' fair?"

"Need to keep penalizing LIV players for poor moral decision"

"Well Greg should change liv to adhere to the owgr rules so they can get points in the next few years"

"100% agree with that."

"Loyalty should be rewarded above all else. Let the play Saudi golf."

"Stop showing your bias. If they didn’t like it they should not have left. Those that destabilize the future of the game should pay for it."

"This weekend they all played in a tournament with a proper format and as a result will get their proper share of points, what’s the problem?"

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Why are LIV golfers so low in rankings? The reason for their ban from OWGR explored

Last year, the golf circuit got divided into two with prominent names on both sides. One was the established PGA Tour, and the other was the Saudi-backed LIV Golf, which lured a lot of top golfers to its camp. The major names included Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, and Cameron Smith to name a few.

This resulted in an immediate ban from the PGA Tour and DP World Tour for the Saudi-backed circuit golfers, which meant LIV professionals couldn't play in most of the ranking-oriented events, hence limiting their scope to improve in the rankings. Cameron Smith was unable to defend his 2022 Players Championship title due to the ban.

LIV sent an application to OWGR last July to grant ranking points to their events. OWGR maintained that it would take 12-18 months to review if the Saudi-backed circuit passed all criteria or not.

Here are a few reasons why LIV may not get OWGR points:

• LIV organizes 54-hole events contrary to the recognized 72-hole ones.
• Their events have a player field of 48 contrary to the requirement of a minimum of 75 golfers.
• No cut events. This can be debated as PGA has also announced to introduce no-cut events next year.
• No Q-school kind of qualifying process as LIV directly signs players willing to compete in the circuit.
• While PGA Tour organizes 18-hole Monday qualifiers prior to each event, local or regional players do not receive any automatic spots in the Saudi-backed Tour.

We will have to wait to see if OWGR recognizes the newly formed circuit given the huge rift it has caused in professional golf. If LIV continues to attract more golfers to its side, OWGR might have to bow down.