Without ranking points, LIV Golf’s Patrick Reed (left) falls out of the top 50, and long-time world No. 1 Dustin Johnson slips to 23rd despite winning a LIV event. Photo: Chris Trotman, LIV Golf
Maybe LIV Golf officials really believed the 48 players in the tour’s Thailand event this week would begin earning world-ranking points immediately through the group’s new strategic alliance with the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Tour, announced as if it were a game-changing breakthrough earlier this week.
Or perhaps LIV Golf was trying to wish it into existence.
It may happen – those precious OWGR points being awarded in LIV Golf’s 54-hole, no-cut events – but it’s not happening this week nor next when the tour heads to Jeddah for its penultimate event in 2022.
Whether LIV Golf has found a backdoor channel to qualify for points – aligning itself with a developmental tour that went more than two years without playing an event – remains to be seen. Or maybe it’s trying to sneak in using a fake ID.
For the moment, though, th…
