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LIV Golf has slammed the “unprecedented” decision to only award world ranking points to top-10 finishers in another blow to the Saudi-backed league. The beleaguered breakaway tour has been rocked by the departures of Major winners Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed in the last month.

But LIV Golf had been confident of being awarded full rankings points for the new 14-event season starting in Riyadh on Wednesday after a long campaign. Events will now be played over 72 holes instead of 54 and the fields have been increased to 57 players with more promotion and relegation to make the league less of a closed shop. Former Open winner Henrik Stenson has lost his place this season.

Yet the Governing Board of the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) has announced that LIV Golf events would be classed as ‘Small Field Tournaments’ and only the top 10 in individual stroke play events would get points. This is because the league does not currently meet all “eligibility standards”.

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A LIV statement said: “This outcome is unprecedented. Under these rules, a player finishing 11th in a LIV Golf event is treated the same as a player finishing 57th. Limiting points to only the top 10 finishers disproportionately harms players who consistently perform at a high level but finish just outside that threshold, as well as emerging talent working to establish themselves on the world stage—precisely the players a fair and meritocratic ranking system is designed to recognize.

“No other competitive tour or league in OWGR history has been subjected to such a restriction. We expect this is merely a first step toward a structure that fully and fairly serves the players, the fans, and the future of the sport.

“We entered this process in good faith and will continue to advocate for a ranking system that reflects performance over affiliation. The game deserves transparency. The fans deserve credibility. And the players deserve a system that treats them equally."

The lack of ranking points had seen LIV Golf stars slide down the rankings since 2022 and miss out on qualification for the Majors. Tyrrell Hatton is the highest ranked LIV player at world No.22 thanks to points he has earned on the DP World Tour while his Legion XIII captain and former world No.1 Jon Rahm is now down at No.97.

LIV chief executive Scott O’Neil had campaigned tirelessly for full recognition since taking over from Greg Norman last year.

But OWGR chairman and former Masters champion Trevor Immelman said: “We fully recognised the need to rank the top men’s players in the world but at the same time had to find a way of doing so that was equitable to the thousands of other players competing on other tours that operate with established meritocratic pathways.”

World ranking points are not the only problem for LIV Golf. Bryson DeChambeau is entering the final year of his contract and will be able to demand a huge re-signing fee to prevent his return to the PGA Tour. After years of big-name, big-money signings, the new LIV players for this season - Victor Perez, Thomas Detry, Elvis Smylie and Laurie Canter - will not move the needle.

And the lack of spending brings into question how long the Saudi Public Investment Fund - which also owns Newcastle United - will continue to invest in a business which has cost an estimated $5bn without return with no immediate prospect of a permanent peace deal with the PGA Tour.

LIV Riyadh - which will have a shotgun start at 6.15pm local time - is the first of 14 events across 10 countries and five continents this season. Teams have been rebranded with the Iron Heads GC branded to Korean Golf Club under the captaincy Byeong Hun An. And TNT Sports will show all events live in the UK.