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LIV Golf’s non-existent Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) status continues to cause angst for supporters of the Saudi-backed circuit.

The controversy surrounding ranking points has been reignited after the opening events of LIV’s third season.

Joaquin Niemann has slipped to 78th despite winning the season-opener at Mayakoba and is currently ineligible for two majors this season.

Dustin Johnson, meanwhile, fell from 218th to 231st after overcoming challengers including Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau to win in Las Vegas on Saturday.

And Talor Gooch, who was LIV’s individual champion last season, is currently ranked the 410th best player in the world.

For now, Johnson is still exempt for the majors after his Masters win in 2020, and the 39-year-old hasn’t show any sign of frustration at his dramatic fall down the rankings.

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But plenty in golf circles are fed up with LIV’s ranking struggle.

Tiger Woods’ former coach Hank Haney has long bemoaned the ongoing failure to be granted points and called the OWGR board’s decision to reject their application last October as a “joke.”

Now, reacting to Johnson’s latest slump, Haney has taken aim once more. “These rankings make perfect sense to the idiots that run the OWGR,” the veteran swing specialist wrote on X.

These rankings make perfect sense to the idiots that run the OWGR https://t.co/vMlsr7HJ4E

— Hank Haney (@HankHaney) February 12, 2024

Haney, who worked as Woods’ swing coach for almost six years, was convinced after LIV’s inception that the series should be granted world ranking points, and clearly hasn’t changed his stance 18 months on.

“The goal for the OWGR should be a real true list of the best players,” he said back in August 2022. “The goal of the majors should be to have the best fields.”

But while the lack of points available continues to inhibit Greg Norman’s enterprise, ranking chiefs have outlined concern over LIV’s meritocracy, with fixed fields and limited chances for players to qualify for their big-money events.

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

“We are not at war with them,” Dawson, a non-voting member of OWGR, told the Associated Press. “This decision not to make them eligible is not political. It is entirely technical.”

The former R&A chief executive added: “Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, of course, they should be in the ranking. We need to find a way to get that done.

“I hope that LIV can find a solution — not so much their format; that can be dealt with through a mathematical formula — but the qualification and relegation.”

topics

Dustin Johnson Hank Haney OWGR Tiger Woods

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.