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CROMWELL, CT – JUNE 25: Brandel Chamblee of the Golf Channel during the 3rd round of the Travelers Championship on June 25, 2022 at TPC River Higihands in Cromwell Connecticut. Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire GOLF: JUN 25 PGA, Golf Herren – Travelers Championship Icon22062543643
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CROMWELL, CT – JUNE 25: Brandel Chamblee of the Golf Channel during the 3rd round of the Travelers Championship on June 25, 2022 at TPC River Higihands in Cromwell Connecticut. Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire GOLF: JUN 25 PGA, Golf Herren – Travelers Championship Icon22062543643
A strong critic of LIV Golf, Brandel Chamblee has often disapproved of the Saudi-based promotion. The Golf Channel analyst even called out the PGA Tour for trying to imitate its rivals by reducing the field size in 2026. Such is his disdain towards LIV Golf. Yet, even Chamblee couldn’t help but show support for the PIF-funded league as it pointed out the “bizarre” approach of the OWGR.
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Joining the 5 Clubs podcast, Chamblee told Gary Williams, “By not giving LIV points, they were policing format differences, incentivizing participation, protecting legacy Tours, and they were doing that using a tool that was meant to measure performance.”
The OWGR system was built to measure the performance of the players. However, Chamblee believes that Trevor Immelman & Co. used it to force their perception of professional golf onto LIV Golf. Scott O’Neil and his team weren’t able to access the world ranking points until they modified their format to suit the OWGR management’s idea of the sport.
Chamblee also added, “I think the official world golf rankings are flawed. They give perceived prestige by elevated points to major championships and to The PLAYERS Championship. And they give bonus win points.”
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Giving the example of Scottie Scheffler, the world #1 has earned two extra points from OWGR in the last 104 weeks. That’s because in the last couple of years, he has won 14 events. Scheffler got four multiple-win bonus points for every title he grabbed in 104 weeks. That means he earned 56 more points than he should have. That helped him jump up to 17.0167 in two years.
That’s not the only issue Chamblee had with the OWGR. He also stated, “It uses strokes gained data to measure the strength of a field. But it doesn’t use strokes gained data to measure the performance within a week.”
The CBS analyst explained how winning a tournament by a big margin and in the playoffs rewards you with the same OWGR points. However, someone who has won a PGA Tour event by 4 strokes or more is likely to perform better in the following week than someone who scraped through the playoffs against his peers. Chamblee found that to be absolutely “bizarre.”
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PEBBLE BEACH, CA – JULY 05: Golf Channel commentator Brandel Chamblee is on set during a practice round for the 78th U.S. Women s Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links on July 05, 2023 in Pebble Beach, California. Photo by Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire GOLF: JUL 05 78th U.S. Women s Open EDITORIAL USE ONLY Icon230705062
Interestingly, Chamblee was also the one to defend the OWGR when the rules for LIV Golf ranking points were first released.
Brandel Chamblee’s initial opinion about LIV Golf receiving world ranking points
Brandel Chamblee does believe that the OWGR delayed rewarding LIV Golf world ranking points. However, that doesn’t mean he believes that they weren’t treated poorly by Trevor Immelman & Co.
The popular golf analyst tweeted, “While my position on LIV golf is unchanged, I think it was the right thing for the OWGR to do. Elite players were falling in the rankings for reasons unrelated to performance, which undermined the core claim of the ‘world rankings.”
However, he did state that the system was flawed. Chamblee also wrote, “In my opinion, the OWGR is still a flawed system of measurement and may have solved a fairness problem but not the truth problem.”
It’s evident that his opinion about LIV Golf as a league hasn’t changed. However, he still sympathized with the likes of Bryson DeChambeau & Jon Rahm missing out on OWGR points. That said, Chamblee’s opinion about the OWGR still seems to be consistent. He believes that the system set by Immelman & Co. is flawed and needs to be fixed.
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