LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil is optimistic that the move from 54 to 72 holes in 2026 will help make its events start counting toward the Official World Golf Rankings system in the near future.
“My hope is that this is walked down before the start of the season, and hopefully even sooner,” O’Neil said in a recent interview with The Athletic. “We’re having very constructive dialogue. I’ll leave it at that.”
The fifth LIV Golf season begins in February in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Despite recruiting some of the world’s best golfers including Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka away from the PGA Tour, the team-oriented league’s competitors have not collected OWGR points in its events through its first four seasons.
That has made it harder for many of its players to participate in the four major championships, which use the OWGR standings to fill out their fields.
O’Neil says that LIV players have made it clear to him they approve the move to 72-hole tournaments starting this season whether that leads to OWGR points or not.
“What became increasingly clear as my time started to roll at LIV Golf was the better players want more golf. Period, end of sentence,” O’Neil said.
–Field Level Media
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