He may be wrong about LIV Golf, but credit where credit is due: Davis Love III says the OWGR ranking system should be scrapped completely.
“I’d just get rid of them. Who cares?” Love told SiriusXM PGA Tour radio. “If you win the FedEx Cup, you win the FedEx Cup, if you win the DP World Tour rankings [Race to Dubai], you win that.”
Davis Love III hadn't heard Jon Rahm's comments on the OWGR, but says he falls right in line with Rahm's feelings this morning. @Love3d | @JonRahmpga | @JasonSobelTAN | @ESPNCaddie pic.twitter.com/EeduQLvhQA
— SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio (@SiriusXMPGATOUR) November 16, 2022
As a primer: the OWGR changed its algorithm in 2022 in order to screw the LIV Golf series. Instead of awarding points based on field quality (star power), it awards more points to field quantity (bigger fields). This purposefully damages the LIV Tour with its 48-player fields, while boosting weaker PGA Tour events with 144- and 156-player fields.
It all came to a head this weekend on the DP World Tour with its limited-field season ender in Dubai where winner Jon Rahm received only 21 points despite a star-laden top-5 leaderboard (Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Alex Noren and Matt Fitzpatrick). Meanwhile, little-known Adam Svensson was awarded 39 points for winning the RSM Classic against a field of no-names and journeyman.
“I’m going to be as blunt as I can,” said Rahm ahead of the DP World Tour Championship. “The OWGR right now is laughable. Laughable. Laughable.
“The fact that the RSM doesn’t have any of the top 20 in the world [and] has more points than this event where we have seven of the top 20 is laughable,” Rahm continued. “The fact that [the BMW PGA Championship at] Wentworth had less points than [the Fortinet Championship at] Napa, having players in the top 10 in the world is laughable.
“I understand what they are trying to do with the depth of field, but having the best players in the world automatically makes the tournament better. I don’t care what their system says.
“They have made a mistake. Some aspects of it might be beneficial, but they have devalued the value of the better players.”
