LIV Golf applied for world ranking points a month after playing its first event, and none were awarded for the inaugural season as considered by the official world golf ranking.
The effect of not earning ranking points – with the exception of two major tournaments and a few European tours – becomes clear every week.
LIV Golf has signed 18 players who were in the top 50 in 2022. With two months left in the year, there are only 11 left. Of those players, nine were in the top 25 to start the year. Now there are three.
Dustin Johnson was No. 13 when he signed. He is now 31st, one spot behind Corey Conners.
Nine players made it out of the top 100, a group that includes Phil Mickelson, Ian Poulter and Matthew Wolff.
It remains to be seen to what extent the majors will rely on the world ranking as part of their criteria. But even if the majors left everything as it was last year, 35 of LIV Golf’s top 48 players would not be exempt for the Masters, US Open or British Open next year. The PGA Championship bases much of its field on “special invites,” and those invites tend to go to players in the top 100.
Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith, Brooks Koepka and most likely Johnson would be the only ones guaranteed to play in all four majors. All have won majors from 2019 or beyond, and these usually come with a five-year exemption for other majors.
TIGER’S MILWAUKEE ACE
Tiger Woods played in front of the crowd when he shot a hole-in-one at the Greater Milwaukee Open on his professional debut in 1996. He kicked the ball into the crowd. It bounced from the hands of Bob Gustin’s brother-in-law into his lap.
Even more fortuitous for Gustin was signing Woods to the Titleist Professional 90.
Gustin kept the ball in a display case with all the tournament information on a gold plaque. And now it’s going to auction.
The 1996 Tiger Woods Hole-in-One Golf Ball will be in Heritage Auctions’ fall sports catalog November 17-19. A full ticket to the tournament where Woods made his professional debut sold for $99,000 in February.
Gustin said he would share the product with David Beck, his brother-in-law.
“He was the one who shouted, ‘Throw him here!’ He’s the only one he deviated from before it happened to me,” Gustin said. “We both played a part in me ending up with this ball, so we’ll both benefit from it after it goes to someone else.”
Woods had only made three aces on tour, all early in his career. He made his most famous hole-in-one on the 16th hole at the Phoenix Open the following year, and his third at the Sprint International in 1998.
LYDIA CONTINUES
Lydia Ko is making another coaching change, leaving Sean Foley after more than two years. Ko said the split was for “logistical reasons”.
The split comes in one of Ko’s most consistent seasons. She has risen to No. 3 in the world and leads the race for LPGA Player of the Year (by one point) and the Vare Trophy. for the lowest average.
“When I first met Sean I was in a place where I didn’t have much confidence in myself and my game,” Ko wrote on Instagram. “Over the past two years he has helped me grow as a better player and person. Our time together has been full of learning, laughter. Last month we decided to go our own way as coach and player for logistical reasons, but Sean will always be a close friend. Sean has been and will be a mentor to me.”
NEW NO. 1
Jin Young Ko lost the No. 1 ranking this week to Atthaya Thitikul, largely due to a left wrist injury that kept her out for two months and caused her to withdraw when she returned two weeks ago to the BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea.
Ko now has a chance to do something no one else has done since the Women’s World Rankings debuted in 2006. No one has reached the top spot five times.
Ko, Sung Hyun Park, and Inbee Park each went to No. 1 four times. Ko hopes to return for the final two LPGA events in Florida.
She was No. 1 for 156 weeks, two weeks before the record set by Lorena Ochoa. Ochoa only reached No. 1 once and remained there until his surprise retirement in 2010.
ASIAN TOUR
Chase Koepka has played in Bangkok, Saudi Arabia and Miami over the past four months. Now he is heading to Morocco to play in the International Series event on the Asian Tour.
It doesn’t matter that Koepka made more money on LIV Golf this year – $4.3 million – than the Asian Tour event offers in total ($1.5 million).
Koepka is among six players who have won more at LIV Golf than the total prize money found in Morocco this week. The others are James Piot, Turk Pettit, Wade Ormsby, Sihwan Kim and Phachara Khongwatmai.
The Moroccan roster includes 15 players who have participated in at least one LIV Golf Invitational event this year, including Andy Ogletree. He performed in the inaugural LIV event outside London, finished last and won $120,000.
HAVE A GAME, WILL TRAVEL
In the non-major division, Rory McIlroy winning the CJ Cup at Congaree and The Summit allowed him to join Tiger Woods as the only players in the past 20 years to defend a title twice at a different course.
McIlroy also won the Canadian Open in Hamilton in 2019 and St. George’s in 2022 (two years canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic). Woods won a golf world championship in Ireland (2002) and north of Atlanta (2003), then Harding Park (2005), The Grove outside London (2006) and Doral (2007).
Add the majors of the last 20 years and the list goes on.
Woods twice defended his PGA Championship title at different courses (Medinah-Valhalla in 1999-2000 and Medinah-Southern Hills in 2006-07) and the British Open (St. Andrews-Royal Liverpool in 2005-06) . Brooks Koepka won the US Open in consecutive years at Erin Hills and Shinnecock Hills and the PGA Championship at Bellerive and Bethpage Black).
DIVOTS
Chicago Golf Club, one of the founding clubs of the USGA, will host the US Women’s Open for the first time in 2033. … Oliver Bekker has played 26 times on the European Tour this year and pocketed 776,297 euros . He once played at a LIV Golf Invitational and won $737,500. … The Irish Open will take place September 7-10 next year, two weeks after the FedEx Cup ends and two weeks before the Ryder Cup in Italy. … A day after Tennessee Volunteers freshman Caleb Surratt was 21 shots short (64-85), he was 20 shots better (85-65) in the Bermuda Championship. … John Solheim has been selected to receive the PGA Distinguished Service Award. Solheim, executive chairman of Ping and son of founder Karsten Solheim, is to be honored Wednesday at the PGA of America’s annual meeting in Phoenix. … Twelve of the last 13 PGA Tour winners have been ranked among the top 50 in the world. The exception was Mackenzie Hughes (#82) in the Sanderson Farms Championship.
STATS OF THE WEEK
Including his bonus for winning the points race of the season, Johnson earned an average of $1,484,907 for every game he played on LIV Golf this year.
LAST WORD
“How could they ignore us now?” — Talor Gooch at the end of the LIV Golf season.
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