LIV Golf dealt world golf rankings blow

Players competing in this week’s LIV Golf event in Bangkok will NOT receive Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points, despite the Saudi-funded start-up forming a new “strategic alliance” with the MENA Tour.

In a statement, the OWGR confirmed that it received a communication from the MENA Tour on October 5, 2022, which outlined “significant changes to the MENA Tour’s membership structure” along with “an outline of the initial series of tournaments in the 2022/23 MENA Tour season”.

The first two tournaments in this series were this week’s LIV Golf event in Bangkok and next week’s tournament in Saudi Arabia.

This confirms a report in The Telegraph which revealed details of LIV’s intention to use the Middle East and North Africa developmental circuit to circumnavigate its world rankings points issue.

The OWGR confirmed that the changes to the MENA Tour would now be more closely scrutinised but not in time for players to earn points this week.

The statement added: “Only
after the review is complete will a decision be made on awarding points
to the MENA Tour’s new ‘Limited Field Tournaments’, defined by the MENA
Tour in its Regulations as ‘any MENA Tour-approved tournament, which
comprises of a player field of less than 80 players’.

“Regular
official MENA Tour events conducted over 54 or 72 holes with a cut
after 36 holes, and its Tour Championship, typically conducted over 54
holes with no cut, remain eligible for inclusion in the OWGR.”

LIV Golf Bangkok gets under way at Stonehill golf course in the Pathum Thani province tomorrow before the action shifts to Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in Jeddah next week.

The new circuit’s debut season concludes with the Team Championship at Trump National Doral Miami from October 28-30.