In a scathing critique of the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) system, veteran golfer Lee Westwood has labeled it a “mockery” following a dramatic leap in his ranking after a single event.

Westwood, a former world No. 1 and one of England’s most accomplished golfers, soared 3,759 spots from 4,689th to 930th in the OWGR after tying for 34th at The Open at Royal Portrush.

This jump allowed the 52-year-old to surpass his son, Sam Westwood, a mini-tour player ranked 2,759th, sparking renewed debate about the legitimacy of the current ranking system.

Westwood, who joined the LIV Golf League in 2022, has been vocal about the OWGR’s refusal to award ranking points for LIV events, a decision that has seen many of the circuit’s players plummet in the rankings. His recent performance at The Open, where he qualified through Final Qualifying at Dundonald Links, highlighted the absurdity of the system. A mid-field finish in a major championship catapulted him thousands of places, overtaking his son Sam, who competes on smaller UK mini-tours.

“I think that just proves that without world ranking points, it makes a bit of a mockery of the system,” Westwood said ahead of the LIV Golf UK event.

The golfing world widely acknowledges that Sam, an aspiring professional, is not yet at the competitive level of his father, who has 44 professional wins, including 25 on the European Tour, and a storied career spanning four decades.

Despite being 52, Westwood remains a formidable competitor, as evidenced by his six top-10 finishes at The Open, including a runner-up in 2010. Yet, the OWGR’s structure, which heavily weights performances in major championships and select tours while excluding LIV Golf, creates distorted rankings that fail to reflect true talent, according to Westwood.

Westwood’s climb is not an isolated case. Other LIV players, like Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia, also saw significant ranking boosts from their Open performances, with Johnson moving from 969th to 571st and Garcia from 467th to 370th.

These jumps underscore the core issue: LIV golfers, barred from earning OWGR points in their primary circuit, rely solely on majors and limited international tour events to maintain or improve their rankings. This setup, Westwood argues, undermines the system’s fairness and accuracy.

“It’s got itself to a point where it’s obsolete, really,” he told Australian Golf Digest earlier this year, emphasizing that the OWGR no longer ranks the world’s best golfers fairly.

The LIV Golf League reapplied for OWGR recognition in June 2025, after an initial rejection in 2022, but the outcome remains uncertain. Westwood believes the lack of ranking points for LIV events forces major championships to consider revising their qualification criteria to include more LIV players, a move he sees as less desirable than integrating LIV into the OWGR framework.

“You want it all to be based off the same system,” he said, advocating for a unified ranking system that ensures the best players compete in majors without needing separate qualification pathways.

Critics of the OWGR, including Westwood and fellow LIV golfer Louis Oosthuizen, argue that the current two-year rolling points system disproportionately penalizes players who compete outside traditional tours. Jon Rahm, another LIV star, has supported alternative metrics like strokes gained rankings, which he believes better reflect current form. Westwood’s case is particularly striking: a golfer of his caliber, with a world number one stint in 2010 and a record of consistency across five continents, should not languish outside the top 4,000, only to leap thousands of spots with one respectable finish.

The comparison to Sam Westwood further highlights the system’s flaws. While Sam is building his career on mini-tours, his father’s pedigree, including three Race to Dubai titles and 11 Ryder Cup appearances, places him in a different echelon. No one in the golf community would argue that Sam, 23, is close to matching his father’s skill, yet the OWGR briefly ranked him higher due to Lee’s limited opportunities to earn points. This anomaly fuels Westwood’s frustration and strengthens his call for reform.

As Westwood prepares for LIV Golf UK at JCB Golf & Country Club, his focus remains on competing at the highest level, but his critique of the OWGR resonates across the sport. With LIV Golf pushing for inclusion and players like Westwood proving their worth in majors, the pressure is mounting for a ranking system that accurately reflects golf’s global talent pool. Until then, Westwood’s 3,759-spot jump will stand as a glaring example of a system in need of an overhaul.