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Phil Mickelson his hit back at fellow Masters champion Trevor Immelman by claiming the PGA Tour would “lose leverage” in commercial negotiations if LIV Golf was awarded world ranking points.

OWGR chairman Peter Dawson announced on Tuesday that LIV would be denied ranking points after his committee concluded that the 48-player circuit could not be reasonably measured against the 24 other accredited tours.

Dawson said 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.”

• LIV Golf blasts OWGR rejection

• How far have LIV golfers tumbled down the OWGR?

That rejection has led to huge backlash from exasperated LIV officials and players after a 15-month application process.

But South African veteran Immelman has suggested LIV’s failure to attain ranking points is the fledgling league’s own fault for failing to meet the OWGR criteria when launching the enterprise.

“If I were going to start a pro golf tour, and I decided that I wanted my tour to have world ranking points available for the players, I’d probably at the outset make sure that my tour did whatever the world ranking organization required in order to comply,” the 2008 Masters winner wrote on X.

Trevor, LIV was NEVER going to get points. Why? 1)it’s a monopoly run by all the governing bodies 2) the PGA Tour tv contract is based on owgr criteria for them to get all their money 3) they would lose leverage in negotiations if LIV got points4) last but not least, Tour has…

— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) October 12, 2023

Mickelson, who has repeatedly shared his disgruntlement over the OWGR failing to sanction LIV, has now broken down four reasons why he believes his circuit was bound to be denied ranking points.

“Trevor, LIV was NEVER going to get points,” the six-time major champion replied on Thursday. “Why? 1) it’s a monopoly run by all the governing bodies 2) the PGA Tour tv contract is based on owgr criteria for them to get all their money 3) they would lose leverage in negotiations if LIV got points.

• McEwan: LIV verdict is little more than another nail in OWGR coffin

“4) last but not least, Tour has BORROWED against the tv deal! If they don’t hit their bench marks and don’t get all their tv money (from CBS) they will have an immediate capital call. Don’t believe me? Ask Sean McManus [the longtime CBS Sports chairman].”

This is not the first time Mickelson has spoken about the relationship between the PGA Tour and its TV rights holders like CBS when discussing LIV’s failure to secure ranking points.

“It is the owgr’s job to rank ALL the players in the world,” Mickelson said back in May. “Maybe they can do THEIR job and figure it out like they do for multiple tours with hundreds of players not even close to as good.But that would hurt the PGA’s revenue from CBS so the leaders won’t.”

LIV Golf stages its final regular event of the season in Jeddah this week.