LIV GOLF PLAYERS REACT TO OWGR DECISION
KING ABDULLAH ECONOMIC CITY, Saudi Arabia – The Official World Golf Ranking announced this week that LIV Golf would be denied eligible tour status and thus receive no ranking points for its tournaments. Click here for LIV Golf’s response. Below are reactions from a variety of LIV Golf players.
DUSTIN JOHNSON
“I feel like you can’t really use the world ranking system anymore. That’s my take on it. Hard to use the world ranking system if you’re excluding 48 guys that are good players. The rankings are skewed.”
“It doesn’t really affect me as it does some of the other guys. I want the points for the other guys.”
PATRICK REED
“Obviously it’s disappointing. Until the actual world ranking reflects the actual top players in the world, then to me it’s just kind of a broken system. … Just because we play on a different tour, it shouldn’t matter.”
TALOR GOOCH
“It’s not surprising given everything that’s gone on the last 1-1/2 years. Nonetheless, it further confirms the irrelevancy of the OWGR. Their job is to rank players all around the world; it’s not players’ and tours’ jobs to conform to what they decide is worth getting ranked, or how you’re able to get ranked. It’s their job to figure out who the best players in the world are – which they aren’t able to do. I don’t think they should be the keyholders for that.”
CAMERON SMITH
“I think it (OWGR) is almost obsolete now. We’ve got some guys out here who are playing some of the best golf in the world and they’re outside the top 100, 200 in the world. It’s pretty ridiculous."
About which players suffer the most: "The up-and-coming guys for sure. Talor’s had probably his best career year. To see him probably not going to be in the majors next year is pretty poor. That’s the biggest thing – finding a resolution for those majors. If they do it, great. If they don’t – I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s a pretty sour place to be in at the moment."
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU
“It's just been par for the course, unfortunately, and I think at this point in time now that they're not allowing it, we would love to find another way to be integrated into the major championship system since I think we have some of the best players in the world. Top 12 on the list, the money list at the end of the year or the points list at the end of the year would be, I think, obvious for the major championships to host the best players in the world at those four events each year. “
SEBASTIÁN MUÑOZ
About the actions on the final hole in Orlando that was a point of reference in the OWGR letter: “I remember that putt. I was one back of Brooks. He putted first. He left it short. And I left it short as well. It was not an easy putt, and everything past the hole was kind of feeding off the green. I did try to make it, but I tried to make it with a good speed, and unfortunately it didn’t get there.”
Would he have made the same stroke without a team element? “Brooks had a 5-footer. It would’ve been kind of dumb for me to rail one nine feet past, kill my chances if he made a mistake. I would’ve hit the same putt no matter what.”
DEAN BURMESTER
“It’s sad they don’t want to recognize LIV with the rest of the world of golf because of the format, which I think is exciting and moving the game forward. But is it a forever announcement? Probably not. And if that’s how they feel – that they don’t want to give us world ranking points for the foreseeable future – then it’s tough to see how the elevated events get world ranking points, when they don’t have a cut and they have a restricted field, which is a similar thing to us.”
PETER UIHLEIN
“I actually played with Mr. [Peter] Dawson [OWGR chairman] on Friday. We had a nice chat. Just the few conversations I’ve had with Mr. Dawson, he likes LIV, he loves what’s going on here, I just think he would’ve liked to have seen a couple of tweaks. But it doesn’t seem like it’s that far off, from the understanding that I got in speaking to him.”
“Obviously, we’re going to have to wait another whole year, and by that time, all guys’ world rankings are going to be so shot, you’re not going to get enough points. I saw Bryson made a comment about maybe how the majors might have to change their exemption criteria. It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out from here.”
RICHARD BLAND
“For DJ and Cam and Brooks, Bryson, and those guys, who I understand are exempt for majors probably for the foreseeable future, but that doesn’t last forever. And to not have those guys playing in majors is not right.”
"I don’t care what people say about LIV and who’s playing on it and why they came to LIV, they’re still some of the best players in the world. In my opinion, Brooks has been one of the best players in the world this year, finishing second in the Masters and winning the PGA Championship. You can’t deny that.
"It doesn’t matter where you play your golf. The world rankings should show that – and it doesn’t. I don’t know how you get around that. It’s disappointing because you are just robbing the golf fan, maybe in a few years' time, of the best players playing in the biggest tournaments. And that’s what it should be. It shouldn’t matter where you play your golf. The game has got to come together and go right. You know that LIV’s here to stay. So, instead of just trying to shut it out the whole time, and hurt the players, and hurt the golf industry, and hurt the golf fans. That's just got to stop.”