On Wednesday, ahead of this week’s LIV event in Saudi Arabia, Harold Varner listened to Graeme McDowell make an impassioned plea as to why the new circuit deserves World Ranking points.
“The word ‘Official’ has to go away from OWGR if they don’t take care of the players out here,” McDowell concluded.
Varner paused in admiration of McDowell’s monologue before he spoke.
“That was unbelievable, your answer,” he said. But when it came his turn to address the same issue, Varner came at it from a different perspective.
“For me, I think we knew what we were getting into. I think it’s easy to sit here and say what could happen and what should happen, but obviously, I knew what was going to happen. It wasn’t going to be easy,” he said.
In this case, what Varner — and his fellow LIV signees — were getting into was a new league with a new format and a disregard for any existing golf institution, the OWGR included. The process for OWGR approval typically takes one to two years, and although LIV boasts an impressive slate of top talent, its 54-hole, no-cut, shotgun-start format make it different than other sanctioned tours.
Several LIV pros, including McDowell, have made the case that LIV should get points immediately. Several PGA Tour pros, from Rory McIlroy to Viktor Hovland to Matthew Fitzpatrick to Hideki Matsuyama and more, have suggested LIV should be considered for points but should go through the OWGR process like any other tour.
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But Varner acknowledged that the pros who left the PGA Tour knew that this limbo — a time where LIV would be without points — was a real possibility. No world ranking points means some pros won’t qualify for major championships, and the longer they go without points, the less those points will mean if and when they are awarded. They weighed that possibility and went anyway. That’s what the money was for.
“I think the people at LIV have done an unbelievable job of just trying — because I don’t know the check marks. I could care less. I knew exactly what was going to happen. I knew what could happen in my career and I accept that,” Varner continued.
“I’ve had a great time out here. So the World Ranking thing, it’s just been a part of golf for so long, and now all of a sudden some feathers have been ruffled. So it’s just awkward. It’s funny, though, I think. But it is what it is.”
Earlier this summer, Varner earned praise for his forthrightness when he announced his departure to LIV and the financial motivations behind it.
“The truth is, my life is changing,” he wrote in a statement at the time. “The opportunity to join LIV Golf is simply too good of a financial breakthrough for me to pass by.”
