LIV Golf received a boost on the eve of starting its fifth season when the Official World Golf Ranking approved the Saudi-funded league to receive ranking points for the first time.The unanimous decision Tuesday by the OWGR board came with some conditions, however.Points will be distributed only for top-10 finishes and ties, compared with other tours that have smaller fields and leave out only the bottom finishers.For its 57-player league, LIV will get points based on a “Small Field Tournament” category that also applies to tournaments like the Tour Championship and the PGA Tour’s signature events that do not have a cut.Considering that LIV Golf has been without ranking points since the league launched in 2022, its strength of field will be lower. Tyrrell Hatton at No. 22 and two-time U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau at No. 33 are the only LIV players in the top 50, with five others among the top 100. Jon Rahm, the last player before Scottie Scheffler to be No. 1 in the world, now is at No. 97.The decision is effective immediately as LIV Golf begins Wednesday in Saudi Arabia.“It’s a big day, and a positive day in my mind,” Trevor Immelman, a former Masters champion and OWGR chairman, said in a telephone interview. “It’s been a long process, it’s been exhausting in many ways, with a whole host of people from outside being involved and working around the clock to make this decision before LIV plays its first event.”LIV’s season opener in Riyadh is likely to award about 23 points to the winner, compared with nearly 47 points to Chris Gotterup when he won the Sony Open, the weakest field in the early part of the PGA Tour season. The Phoenix Open winner this week gets about 59 points.LIV …
