To be fair, there was nowhere to go but up. The 39-year-old hadn’t earned world-ranking points since a T-42 finish at the 2012 Honda Classic when he was still playing on the PGA Tour.
As golf in the Olympics continues to navigate its way towards relevancy, its latest challenge may be the one that puts it most in line with golf’s major championships.
There’s something to be said for the Official World Golf Ranking not changing its rules to appease LIV’s undeserved sense of entitlement… but that rigidness to the rules has likewise made the OWGR obsolete.
With LIV abandoning its designs for OWGR inclusion and the PGA Tour appearing no closer to an agreement with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia that would reunite all of the game’s top players, it appears that the OWGR system will continue to come under scrutiny. Even among tour players who benefit from the current situation.
Between this and Talor Gooch’s recent comments about the Masters deserving an asterisk, you could start a winery with all the sour grapes being squeezed by LIV golfers as the majors approach.
We ran the numbers for all 50 people listed on the LIV Golf points standings and the average OWGR place on Monday was 408.76 with just six golfers currently inside the top 100.
Phil Mickelson was back at it on Thursday while in Saudi Arabia, prepping for the latest LIV Golf event in Jeddah. And by back at it, we mean throwing shade at the Official World Golf Ranking for announcing that it will not include events on his tour at least in the short term.
Bryson DeChambeau has urged the organisers of golf’s four major championships to make moneylist moves and create a category for his peers on LIV Golf, in the aftermath of the board of the Official World Golf Rankings denying points to the league.
When news broke that LIV Golf had once again been denied Official World Golf Ranking points and that was enough to bring Pepperell – a steadfast LIV sceptic – out of retirement with this self-deprecating knee-slapper.
LIV Golf’s application to receive Official World Golf Ranking points has been denied, according to reports from the Associated Press and Global Golf Post.