“Laughable”: Jon Rahm hits out at OWGR changes

Jon Rahm has called the Official World Golf Ranking system laughable ahead of this week’s DP World Tour Championship.

The Spaniard cited the lack of points on offer for this week’s event, which offers fewer points than the RSM Classic on the PGA Tour.

This week’s DP World Tour event will award 21.8 points to the winner, while the RSM Classic champion will receive 37 points.

“I’m going to be as blunt as I can,” he said. 

“I think the OWGR right now is laughable. Laughable. Laughable. 

“The fact that the RSM doesn’t have any of the top 20 in the world and has more points than this event where we have seven of the top 20 is laughable.”

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The world No.5 continued, saying the system devalues the best players in the world.

“I understand what they are trying to do with the depth of field but having the best players in the world automatically makes the tournament better,” he said. 

“I don’t care what their system says. I think they have made a mistake. I think some aspects of it might be beneficial but I think they have devalued the value of the better players.”

“You have the 30 best players of the year. They should not be punished because it’s a smaller field. 

“Depth of field doesn’t mean better tournament. I could go on and on. I think they have missed the mark on that stance quite a bit.”

Rahm, who is currently 14th in the DP World Tour’s order of merit, went on to say that he isn’t necessarily against LIV Golf being awarded OWGR points in the future, but that there should be adjusments.

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“If your requirement is to have World Ranking points as 72 holes and a cut, maybe you don’t award them 100% of the points since they are not fulfilling all of the requirements.

“I also believe, it’s probably a couple-year process, so they need to respect that as every other tour has.

“I think they could be awarded. I just don’t know how we could work it out. I don’t know if they necessarily deserve 100%.”

Rahm will have Ewen Ferguson for company in round one at the Earth Course in Dubai.