LIV Golf might be fighting on two fronts right now. On one end, it is trying to steady itself after losing Brooks Koepka to the PGA Tour. On the other hand, there’s a growing identity crisis that the league cannot ignore for too long. And the changes it has made recently seem to have split its own locker room.

Responding to a question about LIV’s change to 72-holes from 54, Bubba Watson, who is the captain of the RangeGoats, was quite blunt in his remarks: “No. I think we should go back to three days.”

Watson’s reason was simple. The 54-hole format stood at the core of LIV Golf’s identity. Once you change that, it becomes the same as the PGA Tour, from which it tried to separate itself, something Rory McIlroy also took a jibe at.

“When everybody’s close battling, it puts more people in the mix on a Sunday or the last round on a Saturday, Watson continued, “whichever tournament you’re at, and so that just makes it better for the fans when there’s chaos happening.”

“When you go four days, you’re gonna have more spread out leaders,” Watson explained. “It just kind of takes away your last round.”

His complaint makes more sense if one looks at how his team has been performing. The RangeGoats finished 10th in the team standings in 2025. And the 57-year-old himself posted his best individual season on LIV, finishing 11th; he was on the brink of relegation a year before. So, things already seem hard for him. You change the format, and it becomes harder.

In the longer format, talent inevitably comes to the top. Lower-ranked players could switch the game in the very last round. But coincidentally, this is exactly what the LIV CEO Scott O’Neil might want right now.

In all honesty, LIV Golf has been crashing. It did not happen when Koepka left, although that did highlight the situation. After Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, and Koepka, the league has failed to sign any marquee golfer. It did try ‘wooing’ Si Woo Kim, but that did not last long. At the same time, many golfers have been constantly complaining about the OWGR ranks.

“When I joined LIV, they promised OWGR [points] and majors,” said Eugenio Chacarra last January. “But it didn’t happen. I trusted them.”

The 25-year-old reportedly signed a contract worth $8-$15 million with LIV. Last year, when he bluntly exposed the league’s false promises, he was ranked 309th in the world. Currently, he is 124th on the OWGR. Chacarra left the league towards the end of 2024. But unfortunately, he was not provided pathways like Brooks Koepka for a PGA Tour return. Yet, his rank saw a major rise, and so his point about the league just being about money makes a lot of sense.

The Saudi-backed league has tried on its part to be a part of the OWGR system, but its appeal has been constantly denied. The star players who have won the majors do have an entry pass for future majors as per the exemption rules. But for young golfers, that is not a possibility. The PGA Tour has banned them already, and the DP World Tour demands hundreds and thousands of fines. They need the OWGR to compete in the majors, and LIV needs these golfers to stay within the league.

But just like the merger deal with the PGA Tour couldn’t come to fruition, the OWGR deal also fell flat. For many, this gives rise to more frustration.

Joaquin Niemann calls out OWGR over LIV Golf rankings delay

By any metric, Joaquin Niemann has been the most dominant player on LIV. But while his rank on the Saudi-backed league remain high, he still struggles for a decent standing on the OWGR. He had won five times on LIV in 2025, yet he still is 142nd on the OWGR, even below Eugenio Chacarra. The frustration has led him to charge at the OWGR for its stalled process.

“I think the league is doing everything they can,” the Chilean told Today’s Golfer during the LIV Golf preview a few days back. “But I think taking that long is just making a big damage into the game. I think they’ve got to get their stuff together and figure it out the sooner they can.”

LIV had first submitted its application to the OWGR shortly after its inception in 2022. But it got rejected in October 2023 under former chairman Peter Dawson. The reason they gave was their concern over meritocracy as compared to competitive Tours.

Since Scott O’Neil took the reins, he has constantly worked with the new OWGR chairman, Trevor Immelman. The changes to LIV’s structure are brought in to appease the OWGR principles. Yet even after those, there’s no update. Now, golfers like Niemann will be forced to tee off at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on the DPWT to claw back up in the ranks.

“That’s why I wake up every morning,” Niemann said. “To get better and have a chance to win a major.”

The divide is obvious. Bubba Watson wants LIV to protect its identity, while players like Joaquin Niemann are desperate for OWGR recognition that would safeguard their careers.