The guys at LIV Golf took a Big L today. And I am totally OK with that.

Greg and his boys thought they had found a loophole to gain Official World Golf Ratings (OWGR) points for their final two events this year, and going forward. They partnered with the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Golf Tour, a developmental tour founded in 2011 and based in Dubai.

The Middle East and North Africa Tour has an established relationship wherein their players receive World Ranking points. The MENA Tour has not conducted a tournament since before the pandemic in 2019. It appears that LIV has given financial backing to MENA in exchange for a partnership – a “workaround” in their mind to allow the LIV players to gain OWGR points for their events.

Thankfully, the OWGR team has stated that they will not make a decision until after LIV’s final 2 events, thereby killing the loophole that Greg and his startup thought they had. These points are used to help determine qualifications for the games 4 Majors. Without points, the LIV Golfer will stand to lose qualification in these Majors.

NOTE: The rest of this article has been edited from the original post. I rushed the finish originally and wanted to give it a little more attention.

Not only do the guys at LIV not want to play by the rules, they are now trying to buy their way through them. The delusional attitude of its’ leader has spread to the players now, as well.

Comments from Brooks Koepka & Bryson DeChambeau really jump out at me this week. With Brooks claiming that the OWGR decision makers are “sitting on the fence” waiting to make a decision. Bryon’s comments are even more laugh-inducing. He claims that LIV has “hit every mark in their criteria, so for us not to get points is kind of crazy”. I’m sorry. WHAT?!

The only criteria that they seem to have hit is that they actually do play golf. Nothing else. Although there is not an officially published set of criteria to gain OWGR points, there are several simple bullet points that LIV has not even begun to address:

1. Golfers are not given an opportunity to qualify for a LIV Tournament. They are simply chosen by Greg Norman.
2. The LIV Tournament field is limited to 48 golfers, making them a “Limited Field” event.
3. The LIV Tournaments are only 54 holes, with no cut. The OWGR grants points for 72 hole events where the field faces a cut. In other words, the LIV golfers need not play well to garner points & money.

Basically, LIV players have done nothing to adhere to a set of rules that has been in place for years. Yet they cry that they are being unfairly treated, blacklisted, or punished for joining LIV Golf. Reality has escaped them. The rules were in place, you knew what they were, and now you can’t accept the realities that you aren’t going to get what you want.

Greg Norman has completely lost his mind, in my opinion. It would seem that he told these golfers that they would be given OWGR points as part of his pitch to get them to sign on with LIV. Now he is stuck in the mud trying to give his golfers what they need, what he likely promised, and can’t seem to figure out how to make it happen.

It seems pretty simple to me: Adhere to the rules. You’re asking for a change of the rules simply to accommodate 48 of the world’s golfers. Some of them are amongst the best in the world, no doubt. Play BY the rules, it’s what golfers do.

Greg says that he hopes that LIV Golf will be his legacy. I don’t think there is any doubt in my mind that he’s right. But it won’t be for the reasons he thinks it will be.