Rahm lashes out at the OWGR

John Rahm has taken shots at the Official World Golf Ranking, tagging it as “not a good system,” a day after the LIV Invitational withdrew its application to have their players receive OWGR points. Since the inception of the LIV League in July 2022, LIV events have not been sanctioned by the OWGC, meaning that players who have taken part in those events have not been given points for their performance in those events, hence causing their position to drop continuously. 

The LIV had then applied for OWGR recognition, but it was rejected last October due to the format of the LIV events featuring 54 holes with no cut events. On Tuesday, March 5, they formally withdrew their application. 

Rahm, reacting to the news, said he was surprised the LIV had not withdrawn their application sooner, and he criticized the whole system in general. He said: “I’m going to be honest, I didn’t know they were still trying to get World Ranking points. But the one thing I can say is I’m going to back to what I said two years ago in the DP World Tour Championship. I didn’t think it was a good system back then. And if anything, the more time that goes on, the more it proves to be wrong.”

Currently ranked world number three, Rahm made the move to the LIV last December, and even though his rankings might continue to drop since he may not receive any points any time soon, he does not seem to care. Instead, he has expressed his happiness over the fact that some players still get invited to majors, despite their allegiance to the LIV, and he was speaking specifically about Joaquin Niemann who has received invitations to the US Masters and other events. 

Rahm said: “I’m very happy to see Joaco get invites… While we don’t have a clear path to majors through LIV yet, I think they should be taking everybody under consideration. If anybody in this world doesn’t think Joaco deserves to be in the top 10 or doesn’t know that he’s a top player in the world, I don’t know what game you’re watching.”

In all, other LIV-affiliated players have expressed their disappointment over the stance of the OWGR and have called for a better way for the rankings to be decided in the future to prevent players from losing points and also from missing out on important events.

Leon Osamor