Rory McIlroy is a major voice in the professional golf landscape, but unsurprisingly this isn’t moving the needle for Lee Westwood.
Westwood punches back at Rory
The 52-year-old LIV Golfer went further talkSport’s breakfast show on Thursday to discuss LIV Golf’s move to 72 holes and respond to McIlroy’s comments about the league’s decision, noting that the five-time major champion has changed quite a bit in recent years since LIV’s arrival.
“I don’t know. I don’t really pay much attention to what Rory says,” Westwood said. “Next week he’ll change his mind.”
Rory’s thoughts on LIV’s move
On Wednesday, McIlroy discussed LIV Golf’s stunning decision to move all competitions from 54 holes to 72 holes in an attempt to remove a barrier to entry into the official world golf rankings. The five-time champion was left with more questions than answers about how this move would increase the leading group’s position in the ecosystem.
“I think it’s a strange move because I think they could have gotten ranking points with three rounds,” McIlroy said ahead of the HSBC Championship in Abu Dhabi in 2025. “I don’t think three rounds versus four rounds held them back. It certainly brings them more in line with traditional golf tournaments than what we’ve all been doing. It brings them back to not really being a disruptor and more in line with what everyone else is doing.”
The move to 72 holes, combined with LIV’s decision to gain more access to the competition, could see the league gain access to the OWGR, which would give its players the points needed to qualify for major championships. But McIlroy isn’t sure how much the OWGR points will help LIV players now, given how far they’ve already fallen in the rankings.
“I think it’s tough that you have the LIV guys, saying they might get world rankings, but because their field strength is going to be so weak, because a lot of the guys have already dropped down the rankings because they haven’t had any ranking points for so long,” McIlroy said. “I don’t know if the ranking points will really benefit them. Yes, it will be interesting to see how it turns out.”
While McIlroy is right that most of LIV’s players have fallen in the OWGR (only three players are currently in the top 50), a change in the OWGR algorithm could help the Saudi-backed league. In 2022, the OWGR created a metric called ‘Strokes Gained World Rating’, which takes into account not only where you finish on the leaderboard, but also the scores you score relative to the field you play in. So while Jon Rahm is currently the 71st ranked golfer in the OWGR, he is fifth in Strokes Gained World Rating. That change could see LIV Golf’s limited fields earn more OWGR points than they would if field strength were based solely on the players’ rankings in the tournament.
Our Sean Zak has a detailed explanation of the statistic since the OWGR introduced it here.
LIV’s motivation for rules changes
LIV Golf’s decision to change was welcomed by many of its top players, including Bryson DeChambeau.
While joining OWGR was one reason for the move, Westwood noted that it was not the only, and perhaps not even the main, justification for the shift.
“I think [OWGR points] is one of the corners behind it. I think there were a few different things,” Westwood said. “Some guys focused their entire season on the major championships. And playing 54 holes put them at a bit of a disadvantage. I think they wanted to play 72 holes – that represented more of the major championship format. But the world rankings are one of the things LIV thinks about. I don’t know if it’s in the criteria or not, because there are 54-hole tournaments that previously achieved world ranking points. But I think the boxes you have to tick in the world rankings, 72 holes, probably contribute to that.”
Tyrrell Hatton, one of three LIV players in the OWGR top 50, said Wednesday that most LIV players had previously voted against moving tournaments from 54 to 72 holes. But that changed this year.
“I think it’s a good thing that LIV has gone to four rounds,” Hatton said in Abu Dhabi. “I know there was a questionnaire that was filled out at the end of my first season. One of the questions was about moving to 72 holes. I think of everyone who filled it out. I think initially there were only three guys who had said [yes] about moving there [to 72 holes]. I think that’s changed quite a bit in the last year, and certainly from my point of view I’m quite happy that we’ve moved to 72 holes.”
Time will tell whether this move has the desired effect for Hatton, Westwood and the leading group.
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