The Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), the body that has governed the world golf ranking since 2003, will not award points to tournaments on the new LIV circuit, in addition to denying the minor MENA circuit its request to add events from the Saudi circuit on his calendar.
Posted at 12:14 p.m.
The OWGR said in a statement that the MENA, a minor circuit offering 54-hole tournaments (with a cut after 36 holes with prize money of US$75,000) in the Middle East and North Africa, had not granted him enough time to revise his request on the eve of the Bangkok LIV Invitational this weekend, or even the tournament scheduled for Saudi Arabia next week.
In order to get OWGR points as quickly as possible for its 48 golfers, the LIV circuit – which plays 54-hole tournaments without cuts with purses of 20 million – has teamed up with the MENA, a circuit very little known who has not held a tournament since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
MENA is affiliated with the Asian Development Circuit, which happens to be the gateway to the Asian Tour. LIV has already invested 300 million in this circuit, creating an International Series which launched its activities this year.
The OWGR says it is reviewing “significant changes” MENA has made to its calendar membership structure.
The MENA Tour has not only submitted the next two LIV tournaments as part of its season, but it also claims that all LIV golfers — like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka — have joined its ranks.
The OWGR said it would wait for this review to be completed before deciding whether or not to award points to the new MENA limited-platform tournaments. The regular MENA tournaments will however continue to receive points which is not the case for the LIV tournaments this season.