LIV hope for rankings 'solution' by 2026 season

Scott O Neil

LIV Golf chief executive Scott O'Neil is optimistic the tour will secure official world golf ranking points for players in 2026.

The breakaway tour, which launched in 2022, has been locked out of the OWGR because of its 54-hole, no-cut, closed-field model, but they believe gaining ranking points would be transformative.

It would automatically enable more LIV players to qualify for majors and remove one of the biggest remaining barriers between the league and the established golf ecosystem.

O'Neil has described ongoing talks with OWGR as encouraging.

"We are working very closely with [chairman] Trevor Immelman and the board of OWGR," O'Neil, who replaced Greg Norman as LIV chief executive at the start of 2025, told BBC Sport NI.

"It's likely that will have an impact at some point. We are having conversations with Trevor, who is doing an extraordinary and difficult job towards a solution that we hope to have in place by next season.

"There are a whole host of things we are talking through."

The headline change which is set to help facilitate the rankings shift is the move from 54 to the more traditional 72-hole tournaments.

Whether this a concession or a calculated step toward legitimacy on its own terms remains to be seen, but O'Neil says the decision is also driven by commercial reality.

There are sponsors and broadcast partners who want more television air-time, while he believes the extra day of play will also create space for the concerts, DJs and fan experiences that have become a significant part of LIV events.

"Whatever we have to do to get more people invested in this great game, we'll do it," added O'Neil.

Despite the format change, the LIV name - which is 54 in Roman numerals - will remain.

"LIV is a brand," O'Neil added, pointing out that the Roman numeral 54 originally symbolised a round of golf featuring a birdie on every one of the 18 holes, as much as the total number of holes in a tournament or players in the field.

The identity of the brand, he believes, has outgrown the number.

O'Neil, who has more than 25 years experience managing global sports and entertainment brands, laid out a vision for LIV Golf that is in equal parts defiant and conciliatory.

His immediate priority is the league's growth and global expansion, not reuniting men's professional golf.

There is pragmatic openness to working with the rest of the sport, but seemingly without any desperation to force the full merger which was agreed by the PGA Tour, LIV and DP World Tour in 2023.

Negotiations are still ongoing two and a half years later despite an intervention by US President Donald Trump, but O'Neil argues that different leagues with different aims can co-exist and occasionally collaborate.

"The PGA Tour is a US-focused tour and they do an incredible job. I would say we're a global tour," said ONeil, who previously worked in the NBA & NHL.

"It's very akin to Formula One and Indy Car. Indy Car is a wonder. I went to the Indianapolis 500 and it's an incredible experience and event.

"Formula One is different, though. It is a cultural experience. You have fashion, art, music and sport and world-class hospitality. It's in all the most important cities in the world and I think that's much more who we are and what we're about."

On the explosive question of reunification with the PGA Tour, O'Neil's tone is measured but unambiguous. He says conversations with newly-appointed PGA Tour chief executive Brian Rolapp have only been preliminary and both have been focused on getting their own organisations in place.

"Yes I think we will need to create more playing experiences and opportunities with the PGA Tour," continued O'Neil.

"I think there's real opportunity, but I am focused on LIV Golf and taking the sport around the world. I think that we are all smart enough to figure out that we can also create bigger platforms to have some fun and grow this game together.

"I would say that if I were here for three years, I'd be thinking very differently. I think today what I'm looking at is a business with a strong foundation and incredible momentum and happy players, happy caddies and happy families of players.

"The players want to be here and I think that part is pretty special, but are there opportunities to come together? Of course and if there are prudent ones that make sense for LIV we'll do them."