The debate of whether LIV Golf events should get OWGR points or not is still running hot. Many still believe that Scott O’Neil & Co. need to make big changes to the format of the league to gain authorization. They can’t cope with the idea that 54-hole events deserve to reward their players with OWGR points when the rest of the Tours mostly host 72-hole tournaments. But some have accused OWGR of siding with the PGA Tour over LIV Golf. But Bob Harig has provided a logical explanation why that’s not true.

Monday Q Info had criticized OWGR for not rewarding LIV Golf pros’ ranking points for playing in their league. During a heated debate between the fans about it, one fan suggested that OWGR was just making decisions in favor of the PGA Tour and not doing what was best for golf. Harig replied, “Except that is not the case. I’d be happy to explain it to you but it would require critical thinking.”

The golf enthusiast requested an explanation, to which the analyst responded, “OWGR made significant changes that began in 2022 that were studied for more than 5 years. The biggest was rating every player in a field via strokes gained world rating. In the old system, only players ranked top 200 OWGR counted. That meant a field with only, say, 10 players in the top 200 severely overvalued that event…”

In 2022, around the same time as LIV Golf was introduced, the OWGR introduced big changes to its points distribution system. Points for every event, except the majors and The PLAYERS Championship, were determined based on the field rating based on the strokes gained stats of every player in the field for the past 104 weeks. That means any field that didn’t have many top performers would automatically reward fewer OWGR points.

In another tweet, Harig continued to explain, “It’s why a tournament like the RSM can get more points than the DP world tour champ. Every player counts. And smaller fields will get less. That is why if LIV were to get accredited, it would not need a points adjustment. It is already hurt by fewer players in the field. It’s why an event like the Tour Champ now gives far fewer points than previously…”

Based on the new rules alone, Harig believes that if LIV Golf events were rewarded OWGR points, then every player would get very few points. Every tournament consists of only 54 total players on the field. 52 of them are divided among the 13 teams participating in the event, and there are two wildcards. Hence, if LIV Golf were to get authorized by OWGR, then its players still wouldn’t earn that many points even if they are consistent performers in the league.

Despite that, Scott O’Neil & LIV Golf have still been trying hard to validate the league by OWGR. In fact, they also received some positive reports from the chairman of the organization as they continue to pursue the opportunity.

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Despite the rules going against them, is LIV Golf still pushing for OWGR authorization?

Ever since their inception, LIV Golf has been trying to gain access to OWGR points consistently. Greg Norman applied on behalf of the league twice before pulling out of it in late 2024. More recently, Scott O’Neil revealed that he had also done the same. After the new LIV Golf CEO took the step, he shared what he hopes would happen: “We are confident our application addresses the outstanding questions that exist to support a more global, all-encompassing, and accurate ranking system.”

While they may not have received the final verdict yet, O’Neil is already taking steps to ensure their application gets approved. He has taken some drastic steps to bring a few big changes to LIV Golf. As Flushing It revealed, “LIV Golf is set to double qualifying spots for The International Series on the Asian Tour, with sources confirming that the 2 highest-ranked, non-contracted players will earn spots for the 2026 season. This is believed to be the first move in appeasing the OWGR after submitting a new application back in June.” It certainly seems like LIV Golf is opening more doors for talent to validate themselves. Only time will tell if their efforts have paid off.