Phil Mickelson says that the Official World Golf Ranking is “no longer a credible way” of selecting Major championship fields, suggesting that there could be new criteria for how LIV players, who are mostly all falling down the OWGR, qualify for the four men’s Majors.
Lefty tees it up in Singapore this week at the fifth stop of the 2023 LIV Golf League, and he’s finding form after a stunning final round 65 at Augusta National earned him a T2nd finish at The Masters. He was 16th in Adelaide last week for his best result of the LIV season so far.
Mickelson, a three-time Masters champion and six-time Major winner, was asked about LIV’s ongoing quest for OWGR sanctioning, with the league not yet able to award points despite submitting its request last year.
He says the ranking points issue is going to iron itself out but is worried that the OWGR isn’t going to be inclusive, suggesting that the four Majors will have to to find another way of inviting LIV players who are rapidly sliding down the rankings as it’s in the best interest of the Majors to have LIV players.
As it stands, many of LIV’s players who haven’t won Majors in the last five years or feature in the world’s top 50 will struggle to gain Major starts.
“Yeah, it’s going to all iron itself out because if you’re one of the Majors, if you’re the Masters, you’re not looking at ‘we should keep these guys out’,” he said.
“You’re saying to yourself, ‘we want to have the best field, we want to have the best players, and these guys added a lot to the tournament this year at the Masters. How do we get them included?’
“We have to come up with a qualifying mechanism that is inclusive, and if the World Golf Ranking isn’t going to be inclusive, then they have to find another way. Maybe they take the top 5 or top 10 or winners of LIV, but they’re going to have to find a way to get the best LIV players in their field if they want to have the best field in golf and be really what Major championship is about. So they’re already looking at that.
“If the World Golf Rankings doesn’t find a way to be inclusive, then the Majors will just find another way to include LIV because it’s no longer a credible way. So it will all iron itself out for the simple reason that it’s in the best interest of everybody, especially the tournaments, the Majors, to have the best players.”
Mickelson birdied the 72nd hole to finish T2nd at the 2023 Masters
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mickelson is LIV’s highest profile player, having…
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