The constant tussle between the men’s PGA Tour and the breakaway LIV Golf competition saw yet another new controversial chapter being added recently. The Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) organization revealed on Thursday that players will not be receiving any world ranking points for his week’s event in Bangkok or the tournament in Jeddah later this month.

The constant tussle between the men’s PGA Tour and the breakaway LIV Golf competition saw yet another new controversial chapter being added recently. The Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) organization revealed on Thursday that players will not be receiving any world ranking points for his week’s event in Bangkok or the tournament in Jeddah later this month.

The Saudi-backed LIV series has attracted plenty of criticism for the nature of its competitions and the sports washing project funded by the Middle East has been bereft of ranking points so far. However, the MENA (the Middle East and North Africa) Tour announced this week that points would be awarded to players at the next two events after a strategic alliance between the two circuits.

The top 50 players in the world rankings receive automatic qualification for all four major tournaments. The issue, in this case, is that OWGR has mentioned that they have received an insufficient notice and a decision on whether ranking points should be awarded will only be taken when they have had enough time to review.

The organization stated that it received a communication from the MENA Tour at 12:05 GMT on 5^th October, detailing “significant changes” to its membership structure along with an outline of the initial series of tournaments in the 2022/23 season.

“OWGR notes that the first two tournaments in this series appeared to be the same as the LIV Golf Invitational Series tournaments in Bangkok and Jeddah,” it said in a statement. 

“The communication from the MENA Tour included a starting field data file for the Bangkok tournament, confirming that to be the case. A review of the changes to the MENA Tour is now underway by the OWGR.

“Notice of these changes given by the MENA Tour is insufficient to allow OWGR to conduct the customary necessary review ahead of the LIV Golf Invitational Bangkok (October 7-9) and LIV Golf Invitational Jeddah (October 14-16),” it added.

The MENA Tour has not been active since the global pandemic struck in early 2020. Meanwhile, the Saudi-backed LIV has hosted five events during its inaugural year but so far, no rankings have been provided to the players.

Golfers participating in the rebel LIV Tour have been banned from the PGA Tour.