It looks like the Official World Golf Ranking has officially entered clown territory — at least if you ask Lee Westwood, and after what just happened at The Open.
After finishing T-34 at Royal Portrush last week, Westwood vaulted an eye-popping 3,759 spots up the OWGR ladder — landing at No. 930. That’s not a typo nor a glitch. That’s real. And if that number seems laughably absurd, you’re not alone.
Westwood, now a full-time LIV Golf player, didn’t hold back. “I think that just proves that without world ranking points it makes a bit of a mockery of the system,” he said ahead of this week’s LIV Golf UK event.
The LIV Ranking Problem Is Still a Problem
For those who forgot — or tuned out of the never-ending OWGR saga — LIV Golf still doesn’t earn any world ranking points through its own league. The first OWGR application was denied, and while LIV submitted a second request last month, it’s still under review.
Until something changes, the only way LIV players can collect ranking points is through major championships or international events that are OWGR-sanctioned.
Which means guys like Westwood, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, and Talor Gooch are watching their rankings spiral into oblivion — regardless of how well they play on LIV’s circuit.
DJ, a former World No. 1, dropped into the 900s earlier this season. A T-23 at The Open bumped him back up to No. 571. Imagine that: Dustin Johnson, No. 571 in the world? Yeah. That’s where we are.
Westwood Says What Everyone’s Thinking
Westwood isn’t just ranting — he’s raising an issue that even non-LIV players have acknowledged. He’s calling on the four major championships to address the disconnect, especially if the OWGR continues to exclude LIV.
“We either start to get world ranking points on LIV or the major championships have to revise their qualification system,” Westwood said. You can’t claim to be assembling the best fields in golf at the majors if you’re excluding dozens of top-tier players due to an outdated points system.
Jon Rahm, who voiced skepticism about OWGR before joining LIV, has pushed for strokes gained-based rankings, and Westwood agrees. In today’s data-driven world, it’s wild that manipulating your schedule or stacking weak fields can still game the system.
“It’s crazy how you can finesse a little bit of the system by playing certain weeks and not playing certain weeks… Strokes gained usually is going to be the better representation of how truly everybody is playing.”
LIV Players: Out of Sight, Out of Mind?
The bottom line is unless something changes — either OWGR approval or a separate path from the majors — LIV players will continue to vanish from the rankings, no matter how well they’re playing.
Sure, Bryson DeChambeau (No. 16) and Tyrrell Hatton (No. 21) are still in the top 50, but that’s it. And if you believe Hatton, the current rankings are completely detached from reality.
“There’s a lot of guys out here, their current world ranking doesn’t really reflect the type of golfer that they are,” Hatton said. “The sooner the world rankings can become a little more realistic again, the better it is for golf.”
The Verdict? The Clock’s Ticking
LIV CEO Scott O’Neil says he’s hopeful the new application process will be resolved by the 2026 major season. But let’s be honest — golf can’t afford to wait that long. The majors are already under pressure to ensure their fields represent the best in the world, not just the best in the algorithm.
Until then? Players like Westwood can only laugh — or rage — as they leapfrog thousands of spots over a T-34 finish… while still sitting behind guys who haven’t sniffed a leaderboard in years.
