Jon Rahm, Lee Westwood Slam OWGR System Ahead of Ryder Cup Selection

Golf’s major season is officially wrapped, and we’re just 64 days away from the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. For most players, there’s still a final window to fight for a spot before next month’s BMW Championship, after which the automatic qualifiers will get locked.

Unfortunately, that opportunity doesn’t extend to LIV Golf pros. Unlike the PGA and DP World Tour members, LIV Golf players are still excluded from receiving Official World Golf Ranking points while playing in events hosted by their own club.

Over time, many have echoed their frustration over the issue. The latest voice belongs to Englishman Lee Westwood, now ranked No. 930 in the OWGR.

LIV Golf’s Lee Westwood calls out OWGR system as “mockery”

After tying for 34th at The Open, Westwood jumped 3,759 spots up the OWGR, placing himself ahead of his son, Sam, a mini-tour player ranked 2,759th.

When asked about it during Wednesday’s LIV Golf UK press conference, Westwood stated that it “just proves that without world ranking points it makes a bit of a mockery of the system.”

With limited opportunities to earn ranking points via the DP World Tour and other sanctioned events, LIV pros continue to struggle.

Dustin Johnson, former World No. 1 for 135 weeks, had dropped to No. 907 before a T23 finish at The Open that nudged him back to No. 571. If we skim through the list of the top 50 as well, it includes only Bryson DeChambeau (No. 16) and Tyrrell Hatton (No. 21).

On Wednesday, Westwood applauded LIV’s second OWGR submission, under new CEO Scott O’Neil’s rule, but warned that time is running out.

“I think mainly it relates back to wanting the best players in the major championships, not wanting this conversation where there’s a few people missing out because we don’t get world ranking points on LIV.”

“We either start to get world ranking points on LIV or the major championships have to revise their qualification system,” he added, per the transcripts. “Some of them seem to want to do it, but some seem reluctant. They’d have to have a separate qualification system for LIV players, which I don’t think anybody particularly wants. You want it all to be based off the same system.”

Jon Rahm, who joined LIV back in December 2023, echoed Westwood’s concerns.

Lee Westwood was not the only one

Rahm has long criticized the OWGR’s two-year rolling system, which he says penalizes players for short slumps and rewards strategic scheduling.

“I already thought it was flawed before I ever came, and I was vocal about it,” Rahm told journalists during the Wednesday conference. “So I think the last few years, even the world ranking itself and both Data Golf do a strokes gained ranking, and I think that much more reflects who truly is playing the best because the actual points being a two-year ranking, you can have a poor week or a poor three weeks, and that will hold you down for two whole years.

“It’s crazy how you can actually finesse a little bit of the system by playing certain weeks and not playing certain weeks and things like that. It’s always going to be somewhat accurate but not the most, and I think strokes gained usually is going to be the better representation of how truly everybody is playing.”

That was not the end of players speaking boldly on the topic. Hatton, who finished T16 at The Open, emphasized the disconnect between talent and ranking.

“I think there’s a lot of guys out here that you certainly want to be playing in majors. If there’s a better pathway for that for us, then that’s brilliant,” he expressed publicly during the same media conference.

“There’s a lot of guys out here, their current world ranking doesn’t really reflect the type of golfer that they are,” Hatton continued. “The sooner the world rankings can become a little bit more realistic again, the better it is for golf.”

Ryder Cup hopefuls like Hatton and Westwood risk losing their hard-earned positions. And with no OWGR points available, as LIV Golf UK tees off this Friday, the conversation around rankings and qualification is going to be louder than ever.

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