After a long and winding road, LIV Golf is finally getting a seat at the Official World Golf Rankings table-though it comes with a caveat or two. On Tuesday, the OWGR announced it will begin awarding world ranking points for LIV Golf events starting with the 2026 season, marking a significant shift in the organization’s stance after months of back-and-forth.
This decision didn’t come out of nowhere. LIV Golf has been working behind the scenes to align more closely with OWGR standards.
In November 2025, the league made key changes to its format-expanding tournaments from 54 to 72 holes and introducing qualifying spots for players. Those adjustments, while long resisted, seem to have tipped the scales just enough to get the OWGR on board-at least partially.
Here’s the deal: ranking points will only be awarded to the top 10 finishers (and ties) in LIV’s individual stroke play events. That’s a narrow window, and it reflects what OWGR called a “Small Field Tournaments” classification.
It’s a compromise, not a full endorsement. LIV still falls short in a few key areas: field size (averaging 57 players instead of the 75 minimum), no-cut formats, and a lack of open pathways for new players to join the league.
But make no mistake-this is a big step. For LIV Golf, which once withdrew its OWGR application in frustration and fired public shots at the system’s credibility, the about-face and eventual approval signal a desire to be part of the broader golf ecosystem. And for the OWGR, it’s a recognition that the game is changing, and that some of the world’s best players are competing outside traditional tours.
“This has been an incredibly complex and challenging process,” said OWGR chairman Trevor Immelman. “We fully recognized the need to rank the top men’s players in the world, but at the same time, had to find a way of doing so that was equitable to the thousands of other players competing on other tours.”
That’s the balancing act: acknowledging LIV’s top-tier talent while preserving the merit-based structure that underpins the OWGR. Immelman believes this solution threads that needle, allowing high-performing LIV players to earn points while maintaining fairness across the global golf landscape.
LIV Golf, however, isn’t exactly celebrating. The league released a statement expressing disappointment in the limited scope of the decision, arguing that restricting points to just the top 10 “disproportionally harms players who consistently perform at a high level but finish just outside that threshold.” It’s a fair concern-especially considering how difficult it will be for LIV players to climb the rankings with fewer events and lower point allocations compared to the PGA Tour.
And that’s where the real challenge lies. Even with ranking points now in play, LIV faces an uphill battle in proving its long-term viability-especially when it comes to retaining top talent.
Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed have already made their way back to the PGA Tour. Others, like Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm, are still under contract-DeChambeau through 2026, Rahm for two more years-but they were reportedly offered the same opportunity to return and chose to stay, at least for now.
New CEO Scott O’Neil has a lot riding on this season. Securing OWGR points is a win, but it’s only part of the equation.
If LIV wants to keep its stars and attract new ones, it needs to show that it’s not just an alternative-it’s a legitimate platform for elite competition. That means building credibility, expanding access, and continuing to evolve.
For now, the door to the OWGR is cracked open. Whether LIV can push it wider-or if it slams shut again-will depend on what happens next. One thing’s for sure: the 2026 season just got a lot more interesting.