Bryson DeChambeau has five-word reaction to OWGR news

Bryson DeChambeau had a blunt reaction to the Official World Golf Ranking’s decision to deny LIV Golf ranking points.

“It is what it is,” DeChambeau conceded ahead of LIV’s final regular season event in Jeddah.

After a 15-month application process, the OWGR committee has concluded that the 48-player circuit could not be reasonably measured against the 24 other accredited tours.

OWGR chairman Peter Dawson announced on Tuesday that LIV players are “just not playing in a format where they can be ranked equitably with the other 24 tours and thousands of players trying to compete on them.”

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The decision has unsurprisingly been met with backlash from LIV officials, with players continuing to slide down the rankings and losing their eligibility for majors without access to ranking points.

DeChambeau, now down to world No.132 despite two LIV victories this season, added: “It’s honestly sad that they’ve done that, and people are going to say that it’s sad that we came over here, but it’s like, look, this is an amazing opportunity for every one of us.”

After being dealt a huge setback by OWGR, the former US Open champion has also proposed that the majors must come up with their own system to keep the best performing LIV players in their fields.

“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,” he insisted.

“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.”

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The notion that LIV players should have the chance to qualify for majors was also suggested by Louis Oosthuizen in an interview with bunkered.co.uk just days before the OWGR’s rejection.

“The biggest reason you want world ranking points is to play in majors,” Oosthuizen said. “If each tour gets major spots for the order of merit every year, that’s the easiest way to have the top players from every tour playing in major championships.”

Meanwhile, a host of other LIV players have expressed their frustration with the OWGR board.

“I think it (OWGR) is almost obsolete now,” Cameron Smith said. “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.”

Dustin Johnson concurred.“I feel like you can’t really use the world ranking system anymore,” he claimed. “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.”