Hideki Matsuyama put his two cents into the LIV world rating debate.
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After a summer time crammed with rumors connecting Hideki Matsuyama to LIV Golf, the sport’s largest identify exterior of the United States and Europe as soon as once more re-upped his dedication to the PGA Tour.
“I’m a member of the PGA Tour. Never been prouder, especially [a couple of weeks ago] at the Presidents Cup,” Matsuyama stated Tuesday by means of a translator forward of his title protection on the Zozo Championship in his native Japan. “I’m fully committed to the PGA Tour.”
It’s the second time in three weeks he’s been requested about his connection to LIV Golf. He confirmed on the Presidents Cup he had turned down a reported extraordinarily profitable provide to be a part of the upstart rival league in August.
“Simply this is where I belong,” he stated then.
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Since his win on the 2021 Masters, Matsuyama grew to become one of many recreation’s largest worldwide stars and would have been an enormous boon for LIV Golf, because it manufacturers itself as a world tour. Even crowds on the 2019 Zozo Championship had been cut up with half of the group following their home-country hero in Matsuyama and the opposite half following Tiger Woods as he took down Matsuyama for his record-tying 82nd PGA Tour win.
While he made his intentions identified of staying on the PGA Tour, Matsuyama did advocate for LIV Golf on one rely: incomes world rating factors.
LIV made waves final week when it introduced it had struck a deal with the little-known, Dubai-based MENA Tour to co-sanction its remaining particular person tournaments for this season and its tournaments for subsequent season, in an effort to earn world rating factors.
The Official World Golf Ranking has began a assessment of LIV’s software to earn rating factors, however that course of can take up to two years. There are additionally points with LIV’s format because the OWGR usually requires excursions to play 72-hole occasions, have a median subject measurement of 75 gamers and have 36-hole cuts. LIV, with its 54-hole, no-cut occasions doesn’t meet that standards, however the OWGR has given 54-hole MENA Tour occasions factors since 2016.
The OWGR issued a statement final week saying final weekend’s LIV Bangkok and this week’s LIV Jeddah occasions wouldn’t obtain factors as a result of it was not notified with sufficient time to conduct a proper assessment of the adjustments by the MENA Tour.
This additionally adopted a letter signed by 50 LIV golfers despatched to the OWGR asking for world rating factors. Many of the gamers who signed with LIV Golf have seen their rankings plummet and those that usually are not certified in any other case are in peril of lacking main championships for subsequent season and the foreseeable future.
Matsuyama appeared to facet with LIV when it got here to the talk.
“Personally, I think they should be able to [earn world ranking points],” he stated. “However, there’s a procedure that they have to follow, too, with the ranking points.”
Viktor Hovland appeared to agree. He alluded to the actual fact a few of LIV’s gamers are nonetheless ranked close to the highest of the rating, together with world No. 3 Cam Smith.
“I think they’re obviously making an effort to get those points, but I don’t think it’s right to give them an exemption to just get points overnight. They obviously have to follow the process,” he stated. “They have some actually good gamers over there and if a few of these gamers drop exterior the highest 100 on the planet, that’s not good for the world rankings.
“I don’t really know what the right answer is, but you can’t just make up new rules as you go.”
