Lee Westwood of Liv Golf takes ranking system as a “mockery”

Lee Westwood ranked 34th in the Open Championship, winning 3,759 seats in the official world golf rankings.
Now Westwood is now at No. 930 and is now ahead of his son Sam, a mini-travel player, currently at No. 2,759. This is the British’s loud voice of the world ranking system 1.
“I think it’s just proof that if there’s no world ranking point, it’s going to laugh at the system,” Westwood said Wednesday before this week’s Liv Golf UK event.
The comments were published after the league reapplyed to submit OWGR last month. The submission is currently under review.
LIV initially applied for certification in July 2022 shortly after the alliance was established, but was rejected. LIV golfers can only win rankings by participating in major tournaments and international tour events.
With limited ability to earn points through DP World Tour and other tours, LIV players such as Westwood continue to decline. Dustin Johnson spent 135 weeks in the first place, falling to No. 907 before last week’s T23, bringing him back to No. 571.
The current top 50 includes only two LIV players: No. 16 Bryson DeChambeau and England’s Tyrrell Hatton ranked 21st.
Westwood praised Liv’s second recent statement and believed that if the OWGR was not won, the four major tournaments would have to change their processes to include more LIV players in the future.
“I think it’s mainly about wanting the best players in the major tournament and not wanting to miss some people in this conversation because we didn’t get the world rankings on LIV,” he said.
“We either start getting world ranking points on LIV or the main champions have to modify their qualification system, which seems like they want to do, but some people seem reluctant to do it, and they have to have a separate qualification for LIV players, and I don’t think anyone particularly wants it. You want it all based on the same system.”
His ability to jump over 3,000 positions with the 34th tie in a game, suggesting the core issue of Westwood’s system. Jon Rahm joined LIV’s OWGR issue in December 2023 and supported a system focused on key game metrics.
“I already thought there were flaws before I came, and I was leaning against that,” he said. “So I think the last few years, even the world rankings, and both data golfs were ranked in the upper hand, and I think it’s more about who really played the best, because the actual points are two years rankings, you can be a bad week or a poor week or a poor three weeks, which will make you a full two years.”
“It’s crazy how you can really be able to nimble some system by playing for a week, not playing certain weeks and things like that. It’s always a bit accurate, but not the most important, and I think the strokes obtained are usually a better representation of what everyone really plays with.”
Currently, LIV players will continue to fall to the Owls. Of course, they can accumulate some points on tours other than LIV events, but the next major won’t be until next April’s Masters. Unless they are included in the OWGR, LIV players are eligible for the four biggest games each year, which will become increasingly difficult.
LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil said earlier this month that he hopes to get the approval process before the main season of 2026.
“I think there are a lot of people here who want to play in the Grand Slam. If there is a better path for us, that’s great.”
“There are a lot of people here, and their current world rankings don’t really reflect the type of golfers they have, and I think everyone wants to think that everyone sitting here will agree with that.
“I guess the sooner the world rankings will become more realistic again, the better for golf.”