Just when the golf world believed LIV to be the only battle in town, so Jon Rahm unleashed an almighty attack on the new world rankings system calling it “laughable”.
The Spaniard’s onslaught was in direct contrast to the previous day’s statements of Rory McIlroy, who defended the changes he helped introduce by labelling the format “much fairer”. It is fair to say Rahm does not agree.
After letting his feelings be known to Keith Pelley, the chief executive of the DP World Tour, formerly the European Tour, Rahm vented his anger in the media room, pointing out that the DP World Tour Championship here, boasting seven players in the world’s top 25, has roughly half the points on offer than the RSM Classic in Georgia, boasting none of the world’s top 25. Cue Rahm’s bewilderment.
“I’m going to be as blunt as I can. I think the OWGR [Official World Golf Rankings] right now is laughable,” he said. “Laughable, laughable, laughable, The fact that the RSM doesn’t have any of the top 25 in the world but has more points than this event where we have seven of the top 25 is laughable.
“The fact that Wentworth [for September’s BMW PGA Championship] had fewer points than Napa [for that week’s Fortinet Championship] is laughable.
“Look, I understand what they are trying to do with the depth of field but having the best players in the world automatically makes the tournament better. I don’t care what their system says. I think they’ve made a mistake. They have devalued the value of the better players.”
In layman’s terms, the alterations, which came into effect in August, work against limited-field events such as this season-ender featuring the top 50 in the Race To Dubai standings. That is because the “strength of field” calculations in this updated system are based on the quantity of ranked players in the tournament rather than the quality.
So last year, Collin Morikawa – who became the first American to win the European circuit’s order of merit – picked up 37 points, while the winner on the Earth Course this Sunday will secure 21. At Sea Island, the champion will collect 39 points. That is a huge and potentially costly difference.
“I understand they are giving certain value to the depth of the field,” Rahm said. “But would you rather win a tournament when you have the No 1 player in the world or because you have the 30th? I think it’s more valuable if you’re beating the best players in the world. I think a lot of people would agree and it should reflect that.”
Rahm believes it must be remedied, although he “does not know what the fix is”. His breakfast discussion with Pelley was intriguing because the Canadian is on the OWGR committee and was present at last year’s meeting when the changes were passed unanimously.
The PGA Tour tends to exert its dominance when it comes to such matters and it should be no surprise if Pelley and his cohorts will attempt, at the next OWGR meeting, to counter the ramifications of the fresh but controversial format.
Because despite the unequivocal support of McIlroy – the world No 1 who is on the Player Advisory Committee and had an involvement – Rahm is far from alone in his objections. “These changes are going to hammer the European Tour – they really are,” said Padraig Harrington. “It’s a mess and it’s no shock that it favours the PGA Tour,” said Lee Westwood.
It is an understatement to opine that this is an interesting time to be on the OWGR board. The panel is also busy trying to solve the LIV conundrum – or otherwise as the case might be – and the Saudi-funded circuit’s ever more contentious application for official status.
“LIV does have some incredible players and to say that Dustin [Johnson] hasn’t been one of the best players this year would be a mistake,” Rahm said. “So I think LIV players could be awarded. I just don’t know the math, how we could work it out, and I don’t know if they necessarily deserve 100 per cent of the points.”
As an ally of Sergio Garcia, one of the poster-boy rebels, Rahm – who turned down more than £300million to join LIV – has a complex relationship with Greg Norman’s enterprise. He fully backs the PGA Tour but also sees a young countryman such as Eugenio Chaccara come straight out of university and winning millions on LIV and sees no fault.
“I don’t blame him,” he said. “If I’d told my dad when I was in college ‘hey, I have an opportunity to play for $10 million – guaranteed’ but then said I was going to say ‘no’, I’d probably get smacked in the face. Especially if I said ‘let’s play a mini tour in Latin America instead’ and see how that works out’.”
As it is, Rahm is here as one of the favourites to bag the $3million first prize for the tournament proper. In his three appearances on this Norman-designed layout – oh, the irony – the 28-year-old has finished 1st, 4th and 1st and is a collective 53-under for those 216 holes.
Rahm is not in contention to win the order of merit, but clearly still could have a say in its destination with McIlroy leading the points race and New Zealand’s Ryan Fox and Englishmen Tommy Fleetwood and Matt Fitzpatrick in closest pursuit.