Lee Westwood’s tie, thirty fourth within the Open Championship, received 3,759 spots within the official world golf rankings.
Now at No. 930, Westwood is again forward of his son Sam, who’s now ranked 2,759th. It served as an exhibition 1 for British rants in opposition to the world rating system.
“I feel it is simply proving that with out world rating factors, it’s kind of of amusing on the system,” Westwood mentioned Wednesday forward of this week’s LIV Golf UK occasion.
Feedback got here after the league reapplied for submission to OWGR final month. The submission is at present underneath overview.
LIV initially utilized for certification in July 2022, simply after the league started, however was denied. LIV golfers can solely earn rating factors by collaborating in main championships and worldwide tour occasions.
With restricted capability to build up factors through DP World Tour and different excursions, LIV gamers like Westwood proceed to plummet OWGR. Dustin Johnson spent 135 weeks, falling to 907th, earlier than T23, the place final week’s T23 reached 571st place.
The present prime 50 consists of solely two LIV gamers. No. 16 Bryson Dechambeau and No. 21 Tyrrell Hatton of Ingland.
Westwood praised Liv’s latest second submission, and believes that with out successful the OWGR, the 4 main championships might want to change the method to incorporate extra LIV gamers sooner or later.
“I feel it is primarily associated to wanting the perfect participant in a significant championship. I do not need this dialog that a couple of individuals miss as a result of we’ve not scored world rating factors in LIV,” he mentioned.
“We’ll both begin to rating world rating factors in LIV or main championships want to change their qualification system. A few of them appear to be they wish to do it, however some must have a unique qualification system for LIV gamers.
His capability to leap over 3,000 spots primarily based on the thirty fourth tie in a single occasion speaks of the core points Westwood has with the system. The Jon Rahm subject with OWGR becoming a member of LIV in December 2023 helps a system centered on key play metrics.
“I already thought it was flawed earlier than ever, and I used to be talking out about it,” he mentioned. “So I feel the strokes have been ranked prior to now few years, even on this planet itself and in each information golf. I feel it is extra of a mirrored image of people who find themselves actually enjoying the perfect as a result of the precise factors are two years’ rankings, both poor one week or poor three weeks.
“It is loopy to have the ability to really finese the system a bit by enjoying sure weeks and never enjoying sure weeks or something like that. It is all the time considerably correct, however most likely not fairly often.
For now, LIV gamers proceed to roll OWGR. Actually, they’ll accumulate some factors on different excursions moreover the LIV occasion, however the subsequent main won’t be till the Masters subsequent April. Additionally, it’s going to change into more and more troublesome for LIV gamers to compete within the 4 largest tournaments annually, until they’re included within the OWGR.
Liv Golf CEO Scott O’Neil mentioned earlier this month that he hopes the approval course of will progress forward of the main 2026 season.
“I feel there are lots of people on the market who wish to play within the majors. If there’s a greater path for us, that is nice,” Hutton mentioned.
“There are lots of people on the market. Their present world rankings do not actually replicate the kind of golfer they’ve. I feel everybody would hope that everybody sitting right here will conform to that assertion.
“The extra world rankings change into, the extra life like I feel, the higher will probably be for golf.”
