“It's honestly sad” - Bryson DeChambeau shares his thoughts on OWGR’s decision at LIV Jeddah Invitational
After struggling for more than a year, LIV Golf will not be able to offer its players points to have a good rank in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR). The OWGR rejected LIV Golf's request for world ranking points.
LIV Golf League is a 54-hole game while the players on the PGA and DP World Tour play in the 74-hole game format and therefore LIV golfers are denied points.
Bryson DeChambeau, who joined the Saudi circuit last year, recently said that he is not happy with the decision. He said (via NUCLR Golf):
“It's honestly sad that they've done that, and people are going to say that it's sad that we came over here, but it's like, look, this is an amazing opportunity for every one of us."
He went on to say that LIV Golf will continue to promote golf on an international level with their tournaments being organised in different places, including Singapore, Australia and Saudi Arabia.
Adding to his statement, Bryson said:
" I think we've told that narrative quite a bit, and we want to continue to change and grow the game in places like Saudi Arabia, like Singapore, like Australia, numerous places we've all been throughout this year, and we're going to continue to do so over the course of time.”
Bryson DeChambeau is all set to compete at this week's LIV Golf Jeddah event. The tournament will start with the first round on Friday, October 13 at 12:15 p.m. local time at the King Abdullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia.
Golfers will have a shotgun start with all the players teeing off at the same time but on different holes. DeChambeau will pair up with Cameron Smith and Talor Gooch to start the game on the first hole.
"Obviously, it’s disappointing" - LIV golfers on the OWGR's decision
The LIV golfers anticipated that the OWGR's verdict may be favorable to them. However, nothing turned out the way they hoped. The OWRG's decision has greatly disappointed the players.
They voiced their dissatisfaction at the 2023 LIV Golf Jeddah competition. Patrick Reed claimed that the world ranking accurately represents the top players and that the exclusion of LIV golfers makes the system flawed.
According to LIV Golf, he said:
"Obviously it’s disappointing. Until the actual world ranking reflects the actual top players in the world, then to me it’s just kind of a broken system. … Just because we play on a different tour, it shouldn’t matter.”
Dustin Johnson also spoke about the ranking, saying that it would be difficult to claim that it is a world ranking system. According to LIV Golf, he said:
“I feel like you can’t really use the world ranking system anymore. That’s my take on it. Hard to use the world ranking system if you’re excluding 48 guys that are good players. The rankings are skewed. It doesn’t really affect me as it does some of the other guys. I want the points for the other guys.”
Interestingly, four of the seven OWGR board members are from the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, and the PGA Tour announced a merger with LIV Golf earlier in June, which has been under investigation by the US government.