LIV Golf Tour FINALLY set to bag world ranking points at Bangkok Invitational
LIV Golf has reportedly formed a 'strategic alliance' with the MENA Tour and the Bangkok Invitational will be the first event in which players will have access to ranking points.
LIV Golf is set to incredibly secure world ranking points at the Bangkok Invitational this week after teaming up with the MENA Tour.
As first reported by James Corrigan of the Daily Telegraph, the rebel series has entered a 'strategic alliance' with the little-known tour based in the Middle East and North Africa.
UPDATE: MENA TOUR CONFIRMS LIV GOLF TOURNAMENTS WILL RECEIVE OWGR POINTS!
The MENA Tour was founded in 2011 by the Shaikh Maktoum Golf Foundation which is based in Dubai. The tour is open to both professional and amateur players and in May 2016, the tour gained world ranking points.
Now that LIV Golf has teamed up with this Tour, there will be ranking points available for the sixth event of the Saudi-backed series' inaugural season which begins on Friday at Stonehill Golf Course in Thailand.
This event will reportedly be the first of the MENA Tour's wraparound season in 2023. The Tour is also set to take on LIV Golf's 2023 schedule which will see an expanded programme of 14 events. A number of dates and venues are yet to be decided.
This news will please the participants who have left the PGA Tour, with some being suspended. Up until now, LIV Golfers haven't had access to world ranking points and have fallen down the rankings as a result. The membership sign-up for the MENA Tour opened only three weeks ago.
Without world ranking points, their future involvement in major championships and the Ryder Cup was cast into doubt. The MENA Tour has seemingly provided the LIV Golf Series with a solution to its most crucial problem.
In September, each player who played in the LIV Golf Chicago Invitational signed a letter which was sent to Peter Dawson, the chairman of the Official World Golf Rankings, pleading for ranking points.
After Smith won the event at Rich Harvest Farms, LIV Golf commissioner Greg Norman described Smith and Dustin Johnson as the top two players in the world.
Smith, who won the 150th Open Championship in July, is currently the highest ranked LIV Golfer at third with Joaquin Niemann and Johnson in 22nd and 23rd place.
Also, in a post by Brooks Koepka's wife Jena Sims on her Instagram story, she videoed a large group of LIV Golfers with the caption: "Congrats to these guys, getting World Ranking Points this week."
