The Official World Golf Ranking will award world-ranking points to the top 10 finishers in LIV Golf League events for the first time this season, the OWGR governing board announced Tuesday.
While stating that there are a number of areas in which LIV Golf doesn’t meet the OWGR’s eligibility standards, the governing board still voted to award points to the top 10 finishers and ties.
LIV Golf events will be ranked as “small tournament fields” with a points distribution cutoff. Golfers who finish outside the top 10 won’t receive world-ranking points, which won’t be redistributed to those in the top 10.
The winner of this week’s LIV Golf event in Saudi Arabia is projected to earn about 23 world-ranking points, which is less than half of what winners in PGA Tour full-field events receive. The runner-up will get about 13.4 points.
In last week’s Farmers Insurance Open on the PGA Tour, Justin Rose captured about 61 world-ranking points for his victory, and 74 golfers picked up at least .55 points.
World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler collected 69.2 world-ranking points when he won the American Express on Jan. 25 because of the strength of the field.
“This has been an incredibly complex and challenging process and one which we have devoted a huge amount of time and energy to resolving in the seven months since LIV Golf submitted their application,” OWGR chairman Trevor Immelman said in a statement. “We fully recognized the need to rank the top men’s players in the world but at the same time had to find a way of doing so that was equitable to the thousands of other players competing on other tours that operate with established meritocratic pathways.”
LIV Golf will have 72-hole tournaments for the first time this season, with golfers still playing in individual and team competitions simultaneously.
In a news release Tuesday, the OWGR noted that LIV Golf events don’t meet its standards for field sizes of at least 75 golfers (LIV has 57); they’re strictly no-cut events; and there are restrictive pathways that allowed two golfers from the Asian Tour’s International Series and three from a “closed” promotions event to join the league this year.
OWGR also noted concerns about LIV Golf’s “self-selection of players with players being recruited rather than earning their place on the tour in many cases and, in recent days, the addition/removal of players to/from teams based on their nationality rather than for meritocratic reasons.”
“We believe we have found a solution that achieves these twin aims and enables the best-performing players at LIV Golf events to receive OWGR points,” Immelman said. “I would like to acknowledge the substantial and constructive efforts made by Scott O’Neil and the team at LIV Golf. We look forward to working with them on implementing this approach with immediate effect for the 2026 LIV Golf season.”
The OWGR release said LIV Golf is planning further changes for its 2027 season.
“As LIV Golf continues to evolve, OWGR will continue to evaluate LIV Golf against OWGR’s eligibility standards, which could result in an increase in points, a decrease in points or removal from the system altogether,” the news release said.
In a statement, LIV Golf criticized the board’s decision, while acknowledging a “long overdue moment of recognition, which affirms the fundamental principle that performance on the course should matter, regardless of where the competition takes place.”
“However, this outcome is unprecedented,” a LIV statement said. “Under these rules, a player finishing 11th in a LIV Golf event is treated the same as a player finishing 57th. Limiting points to only the top 10 finishers disproportionately harms players who consistently perform at a high level but finish just outside that threshold, as well as emerging talent working to establish themselves on the world stage — precisely the players a fair and meritocratic ranking system is designed to recognize.
“No other competitive tour or league in OWGR history has been subjected to such a restriction. We expect this is merely a first step toward a structure that fully and fairly serves the players, the fans, and the future of the sport.”
LIV said it entered the OWGR process in good faith and “will continue to advocate for a ranking system that reflects performance over affiliation.”
“The game deserves transparency,” its statement said. “The fans deserve credibility. And the players deserve a system that treats them equally.”
LIV golfers criticized the OWGR as being “obsolete” and “incomplete” because they weren’t receiving world-ranking points.
Two-time U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau is ranked 33rd in the world, despite being second in the OWGR’s strokes-gained rating.
Former world No. 1 golfer Jon Rahm is fifth in strokes gained but 97th in the OWGR.
In a statement, the PGA Tour said, “We respect today’s decision by the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) Governing Board and the considerable time the Board and Chairman Immelman committed to this process.”
LIV Golf first applied for OWGR recognition in July 2022, a month after the breakaway circuit’s first tournament.
At the time, then-LIV Golf CEO and commissioner Greg Norman said the tour should be awarded world-ranking points “by any fair, objective and impartial review.”
But the OWGR governing board denied LIV Golf’s application in October 2023, citing concerns about the lack of turnover among players in LIV Golf and the limited pathways for other golfers to join. It also had concerns about some of the team aspects of LIV Golf.
LIV Golf withdrew its application for OWGR recognition in March 2024, and the Saudi Arabian-funded league resubmitted its application in July 2025.