Miami (AFP) – Reigning Olympic champion Xander Schauffele had the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) in mind after LIV Golf withdrew its bid to obtain ranking points on Tuesday, with complaints about the system.
On a practice day ahead of Thursday’s start of the PGA Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in Orlando, Schauffele and PGA Tour Policy Board member Patrick Cantlay agreed some changes might be needed to measure talent properly from the Saudi-backed LIV series.
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LIV commissioner Greg Norman ripped the OWGR, saying there was no resolution that “protects the accuracy, credibility, and integrity of the OWGR rankings”. Only four players from the upstart series are ranked in the world top 50 since LIV’s 54-hole events get no OWGR points. It’s those same points that fifth-ranked Schauffele will be relying upon to give him a chance to defend Olympic gold this summer in Paris.
“It’s definitely on my radar. It’s sort of at the back of my head,” Schauffele said of the Olympics. “I know there’s a lot of small things I need to do in order to qualify for the event, but first things first. I need to continue to have really solid weeks and keep my world ranking up high enough so I can qualify for Paris.”
Right now, Schauffele would be joined on the US golf team in Paris by top-ranked Scottie Scheffler, sixth-ranked Patrick Cantlay and seventh-ranked Wyndham Clark but five rivals are among those in the top 15. LIV has four players in the world top 50 — third-ranked reigning Masters champion Jon Rahm, No.17 Tyrrell Hatton, 30th-ranked reigning PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka and 50th-ranked Cameron Smith, the 2022 British Open champion.
Schauffele says LIV players should be higher. “This is sort of the structure it is right now with no OWGR,” Schauffele said. “But the LIV tour definitely has really good players, players that are in the top 10 or top 25 in the world, and there’s many of ’em. They’re just unranked right now, but I do believe they are definitely top-ranked players in the world.”
– Ranking changes needed? –
Cantlay had no update on merger talks between the PGA Tour and LIV’s backers, the Saudi Public Investment Fund, but was asked if the OWGR were broken because the criteria don’t include LIV players. “I think the world rankings has a very particular set of criteria and I don’t know if broken is the right word, but I think that there has been so much uncertainty and change in the last couple years that it’s inevitable that things need to be updated or changed,” Cantlay said. “I don’t know if we’ve worked through all the changes necessary, compared to all the changes that have happened in the last couple years.”
With the rankings used to decide the entry criteria and qualifying exemptions for golf’s major events, there have been concerns many of the world’s best might miss out on major championships. “That’s up for the majors to decide their fields,” Cantlay said. “That’s not really on my radar.” Schauffele praised the special invitational awarded by the Masters to Chile’s Joaquin Niemann, who won the Australian Open to ensure a spot in this year’s British Open but has sunk to 76th in the world rankings despite two LIV Golf wins this year. “I think that’s very well deserved,” Schauffele said.
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