Is OWGR ready to accept LIV into the fold?
League's changes seem aimed at appeasing ranking board; Stray Shots: Hero and villains
Jon Rahm won the 2025 LIV individual title without ever winning (Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
While the PGA Tour forges ahead with the meat of its West Coast Swing and boasts its reacquisition of Brooks Koepka and eventually Patrick Reed, LIV Golf is signaling on the eve of its fifth season that its not going anywhere.
LIV — which had already expanded its format (72 holes), field size (57 players) and qualifying avenues (five spots) into the league — announced several more changes ahead of its 2026 season opener under the lights in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, this week.
Two of the changes — an updated points system and increased relegation — seem aimed at further appeasing the Official World Golf Ranking, which could decide soon to include LIV Golf in the global ranking system.
There will be more points available to each individual player, especially winners and podium finishers of LIV events. Individual winners will earn 200 points, up from 40 in past seasons. Second place will get 113 (up from 30) and third place 75 (up from 24). Instead of only giving points to top24 finishers, the point table be go all the way to 57th place (1 point) in 2026.
The changes should resolve the issue that reared its head last season when Jon Rahm collected the season-long individual points title despite not winning a single event while Joaquin Niemann settled for second despite winning five trophies on the season.
Of greater significance is the tweaking of its relegation system with updated competitive thresholds to the season-long individual standings.
The Lock Zone expands to the top 34 players in the standings (approximately 60 percent of the 57-player field), which is up from the top 24 players from 2022-25;
The Open Zone includes players finishing in positions 35-46 in the standings (approximately 20 percent of the 57-player field), which is reduced from 24 spots from 2022-25;
The Drop Zone (Relegation) expands to positions 47-57 in the standings (approximately 20 percent of the 57-player field), which is up from the bottom 6 players in 2024-25.
“These changes increase the turnover and meritocratic pathways into the league, enhance the competitive tension throughout the season, reflect the increased field size in 2026, and are designed to provide greater clarity around season-long performance benchmarks,” LIV said in its announcement.
Along with the shift to 72 holes and increased qualifying options, these changes seem designed to address some of the concerns the OWGR board has in deciding whether or not to invite LIV Golf into the ranking ecosystem. The Associated Press reported that the OWGR board, headed by Trevor Immelman, was scheduled to meet earlier this week and could make a decision on LIV Golf’s status as soon as the end of the week.
The OWGR isn’t fond of LIV’s penchant for inviting and signing players to contracts instead of basing status entirely on merit. And the team component only clouds the evaluation of individual players.
But LIV Golf loves its team element and is doubling down on building that model into something that can create value in each franchise.
LIV doubled its investment in the team results. The weekly team prize payouts will double from $5 million to $10 million, and all 13 teams will now earn points and prize money each week based on finishing position, rather than only the top three teams splitting the pot.
Additionally, LIV is introducing a new $2.3 million per-event prize pool in 2026 to reward individual player performances within podium-finishing teams each week.
In total, LIV Golf’s 14-event season will dole out $470 million in individual and team purses for 2026 performance. That compares to the $450 million in purses plus $100 million in FedEx Cup bonuses available on the PGA Tour in 2026.
