It looks like LIV Golf’s world ranking woes are about to be over

A change in leadership at both LIV Golf and the Official World Golf Ranking seems to have worked in the breakaway league’s favor…

LIV Golf’s bid to earn world ranking points from OWGR is back on.

According to Sportico, executives representing the two organisations are in “serious discussions” to award ranking points for LIV Golf tournaments.

The fresh talks have coincided with both LIV and the OWGR having new people at the helm. Scott O’Neil took over from Greg Norman as the league’s CEO and commissioner in January, while Trevor Immelman replaced Peter Dawson as the OWGR’s chair.

O’Neil and Immelman were spotted chatting at Augusta during last month’s Masters.

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Jon Rahm has been one of the most vocal about the situation. The Spaniard never made it a secret that reaching World No.1 was one of his main goals as a professional. He achieved that in 2020 and spent three years tussling with Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler for the position.

Since joining LIV, he has voiced his frustration over apparent promises not becoming a reality.

“While I understand why, I don’t think it was the most fair state of my game,” Rahm, who has tumbled down to 73rd in the world, said ahead of the Masters.

“Right before joining LIV, I was close to 50 per cent worldwide in all my starts finishing top-10, which is something I pride myself on, and to keep it going that way is not easy.”

LIV Golf’s last effort to be recognized as an Eligible Golf Tour was knocked back by the OWGR due to its shotgun start and team formats complicating matters.

While not having access to world ranking points doesn’t really affect LIV’s roster of stars on a week-to-week basis, it has had a knock-on effect for the major championships. While the likes of Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka are exempt thanks to recent major wins, others such as Sergio Garcia and Joaquin Niemann have been forced to rely on invites.

The USGA and R&A did announce at the start of the year that they would be creating a direct pathway into the US Open and The Open respectively – though the Oakmont spot has already been wrapped by a dominant Niemann.