Australian LIV golfer Lucas Herbert has declared that the breakaway league no longer wants to act as a disrupter, and instead fit in with the world of golf.
Speaking to Australian media after his two-under par opening round of 69 at the NSW Open, Herbert said that LIV Golf’s announcement earlier this month that its tournaments will expand to 72 holes from 54 holes going forward was publicised immediately after a Zoom call with the playing group.
The change to adhering to the traditional format of four rounds comes in a bid to earn Official World Golf Rankings points for its tournaments.
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LIV players have watched their world ranking plummet since they jumped across to the Saudi-backed league as the organisation’s bid to receive world raking points from its three round events was rejected two years ago.
The change seems to be a key step towards gaining them to help players play their way into major championships, and gain greater legitimacy for the league.
Herbert, who is defending his NSW Open title in the Hunter Valley this week, said the change has come off the back of new figureheads stepping in on either side of men’s professional golf’s divide.
“When we all came across, we knew what we were signing up for,” he said.
“At the various times that guys came over, there were no world ranking points.
“It didn’t look like we were close to getting ranking points at any point either.
“We all knew what we were signing up for and I don’t think there was an expectation, but the good thing about a new CEO at LIV with Scott O’Neil and a new CEO at the PGA Tour with Brian Rolapp, I do think there is a vested interest in wanting to bring the game a little more.
“Especially from LIV’s perspective maybe making it less of a disruptive environment and wanting to fit in with the golfing ecosystem.
“We see how good golf is in America, obviously with the PGA Tour, and we want to make that impact across the world on various different countries.
“LIV wants to fit in with that. We obviously want to play the majors. We know how important they are. The staff and the players still really care about those tournaments and it’s important that we get into them.
“At the moment, I think the best way to get into them is through the world rankings system.
“I know that’s what Scott’s working pretty hard on, to have more players competing in those tournaments.
“We’ve had great representation in the majors this year. I think it’s been somewhere between 25 and 30 per cent of the league has played in each major championship, which is really, really good, and it just goes to show that there is still players on LIV that are very, very competitive.
“They still care about their golf. They’re not out there for a hit and giggle. They still really intensely care about their game, the game in general.
“With the 72 holes, I don’t know that it was necessary to get world rankings, but I think for us it might have been low hanging fruit to get what we do on LIV alongside the other tours in terms of more of a similar product to rank players..
“Maybe not the best way of describing that, but if all players across the world are playing four round tournaments to rank themselves, that’s probably the best way to do it.”
The big change was not player-led, according to Herbert, but rather came from the LIV hierarchy.
Not that the Ripper GC star is complaining despite an extra day being added to his workload at each event.
“It hasn’t been a topic of conversation too often, to be honest,” Herbert said of the move to 72 holes.
“I don’t know if I’m the best person to ask about a general consensus from the tour.
“My take would be that I don’t think players don’t really care.
“Getting to play across the world the way we do, in front of crowds the way that we play in front of, and the money we play for, we’d play nine rounds if we needed to.”
He later added: “We probably don’t get consulted and it’s probably a good thing because we’re good at hitting golf shots and we’re kind of not the biggest geniuses when you look at the rest of it.
“Especially from a business point of view, there definitely should be people like the Scott O’Neil’s of the world making those decisions for us.”
One thing that players will push for with the changes to LIV’s schedule, however, is better management of travel across the globe.
LIV has already announced 11 events for next year, across five continents.
Herbert is hoping for some amendments with the added day of tournament play.
“I’m contracted to play 17 events for the year. Some other guys are 15 or 14. If you’re playing regularly on other tours around the world, you’re probably playing 25 and up,” he said.
“I wouldn’t have thought that the four rounds would bring in the fatigue. What can get fatiguing is the travel.
“Obviously travelling a lot wider across the world than you would say on the PGA Tour.
“Last year we had some pretty fun back-to-back weeks.
“Mexico City to Korea was maybe not the best scheduling decision they’ve ever made.
“With it being four rounds now, they’ll probably do a much better job to be able to get that taken care of so that the players can perform really well.
“Ultimately, at the end of the day, we are the product and they want to see us play some really good golf.”
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