Lee Westwood blasts OWGR's LIV Golf decision: "No idea how they came to this conclusion"

Lee Westwood says he has "no idea" how the sport's global rankings body came to the conclusion to award only the top-10 LIV Golf players points.

The Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) announced yesterday that LIV have been successful in their pursuit for accreditation.

It means that, going forward, LIV players can start climbing the rankings and qualify for the men's majors as a direct result of their performances on the breakaway tour. 

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But that task will prove extremely difficult as points will only be distributed amongst players who finish in the top-10 of LIV events throughout 2026.

In a statement, LIV Golf have already called the news "a long overdue moment of recognition". 

But league officials are furious with the "unprecedented outcome". 

"No other competitive tour or league in OWGR history has been subjected to such a restriction," their statement added. 

Westwood, who was recruited by LIV in 2022, is among the players who believe the decision is incorrect. 

"It's a start," the former world number one said on X. 

"But if you think 11th in a LIV event doesn't deserve OWGR points you're more biased than I thought. 

"It's the young guys that have chosen LIV as the pathway for their careers that will suffer most from this decision. 

"Still couldn't quite manage to do their job and fairly rank the best players in the world could they?!"

In a separate post, Westwood added: "I have no idea how they came to this conclusion. I'm sure they've run projections to suit. 

"At the end, it seems like they ran out of excuses to at least award a few points."

What have the OWGR said?

The OWGR released a statement explaining their decision on 3 February, 24 hours before LIV's curtain-raiser in Riyadh began. 

OWGR acknowledged that LIV Golf is evolving and will evaluate any further changes to their format. 

According to OWGR chairman and former Masters champion Trevor Immelman, LIV's field sizes, no-cut events and restrictive pathways to join the league played a key role in their decision. 

The OWGR's regulations state to be considered for accreditation field sizes have to be a minimum of 75 players. 

LIV's roster for the 2026 season has increased, but only to 57. 

Additionally, the fact LIV recruits players rather than earning their place on the tour also played a factor. 

"We fully recognised the need to rank the top men's players in the world but at the same time had to find a way of doing so that was equitable to the thousands of other players competing on other tours that operate with established meritocratic pathways," said Immelman

"We believe we have found a solution that achieves these twin aims and enables the best-performing players at LIV Golf events to receive OWGR points."