– The complaints from LIV Golf about the scoring system announced by the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) for the Saudi league tournaments are somewhat surprising.
– These complaints, outlined in an official statement, focus solely on the fact that the OWGR awards points only to the top ten of each tournament, so it can be implicitly understood that the Saudi league is indeed satisfied with the number of points distributed, at least to those top ten (let’s remember: 23.03 points for the first; 13.36 for the second; 8.75 for the third; 6.45 for the fourth, down to 2.76 points for the tenth). Something is better than nothing.
– (Before proceeding, it is worth opening a parenthesis to clarify that this distribution of points published by the OWGR corresponds only to this first tournament, this week, in Saudi Arabia. In subsequent events, these amounts could be slightly modified, as the players’ Performance Points in the Saudi League change, a fundamental criterion in the OWGR equations. What will not change, until further notice, is that only the top ten will receive points).
– Let’s return to the reason for LIV‘s complaints. The aforementioned statement reads verbatim “No other tour or competitive league in the history of the OWGR has been subjected to such a restriction”, referring to the fact that only the top ten receive points. It’s going over the same thing again and again, but the counter-argument arises naturally, in at least five points:
1. Agreed, LIV, but no other tour or competitive league in the history of the OWGR pays fixed amounts to certain players before they even play, guaranteeing them a spot in the competition regardless of their results.
2. Agreed, LIV, but no other tour or competitive league in the history of the OWGR has the figure of ‘captains’, who distribute perks indiscriminately and in a scarcely transparent manner to those who benefit from it.
3. Agreed, LIV, but no other tour or competitive league in the history of the OWGR combines an individual competition with a team one.
4. Agreed, LIV, but no other tour or competitive league in the history of the OWGR has incentivised its members’ results in the Majors with money.
5. Agreed, LIV, but no other tour or competitive league in the history of the OWGR has ever been conducted with one hundred percent of its tournaments without a cut. The Saudi League demands that all 57 players who take the field in each tournament receive points, or in other words, that EVERYONE receives points, a situation that certainly does not occur in any other tour, mainly because there is usually a cut that penalises those who miss it.
– The news has sparked, and is sparking, an intense and interesting debate. Some believe that indeed, more players should receive points, not just the top ten. And many others think that in reality, the Saudi league should be more than satisfied with this first step. Some also believe that at least those top ten should receive more points; and others think it’s already too many…
– The undersigned is among those who believe that, in general terms and considering the steps LIV is taking in the field of meritocracy, the measure adopted by the OWGR is good news for golf. And, going a step further and developing a personal theory trying to apply common sense, the undersigned also believes that perhaps those ten ‘chosen ones’ should have received fewer points and, instead, the list of those eligible for points should have been expanded, for example to the top twenty, or maybe even to forty. And you, what do you think?
