Despite being announced on the same morning, LIV Golf’s year-end news and the official World Golf Ranking appear to be unrelated. LIV will expand its field from 54 to 57 players by 2026, and the OWGR will now offer discounted world ranking points for events finishing in fewer than 72 holes.
However, the decisions are at least partially linked, as LIV Golf now has its sights set on receiving world ranking points more than ever. And the OWGR continues to warm up to that prospect.
“Since late June, the Board of Directors has attempted to thoroughly evaluate the LIV Golf application,” said Trevor Immelman, president of OWGR, in a press release. “We remain committed to the OWGR’s mission, which requires honoring the meritocracy woven into the fabric of the professional game.
“As such, discussions have been regular and continue. To be clear, progress has been made, but there is no decision to share at this time. We will continue to work closely with LIV Golf as it continues to develop to ensure the application is handled fairly, with integrity and consistently, as previously stated.”
And while that could mean that LIV starts the year 2026 with no change in points status, that “progress” is not insignificant. The league decided to shift its events to 72 holes during this offseason, bringing it in line with the vast majority of professional tours that receive OWGR points. It has also expanded access to its $25 million events.
LIV’s Dec. 30 announcement focused on the addition of three additional “wild card” slots in the fields, all coming from next month’s LIV Golf Promotions event held in Florida. Eighty competitors are whittled down to three, each earning a full season’s worth of starts and playing exclusively for themselves, not as members of an LIV franchise.
While the list of names in the Promotions space is modest, the existence of these routes to the once very closed circuit signals another way in which LIV is leaning toward the OWGR. One of the key tenets of the OWGR’s meritocratic policy is to ensure that the tours they award provide routes for golfers around the world.
Will it be enough for LIV to receive OWGR points soon? The league spent much of 2025 believing it would receive points by the end of the year, which won’t be the case. That said, the OWGR has shown that it is capable of change, however traditional and slow to adapt. It was announced on Tuesday morning that scheduled 54-hole tournaments will receive 75% of the world rankings points awarded to 72-hole events, and that any event shortened to 54 holes or 36 holes – from the originally targeted 72 – will receive 75% and 50% of the original points.
The move will protect the rankings from over-rewarding events interrupted by weather, such as when Wyndham Clark’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am ended after 54 holes. Clark received the full number of points he normally would have received during a 72-hole event at Pebble Beach, but that would not happen under the revised policy.
The adjustment can of course be viewed separately from LIV Golf, but look no further than the second press release quote from Immelman:
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