The breakaway, Saudi-backed LIV Golf Tour have been denied access to world ranking points by the Official World Golf Ranking board.
Since swathes of players on the PGA, DP World and Asian Tours jumped ship for the new exhibitionist-styled format, none of them have received world ranking points, seeing them plummet down the standings.
Therefore, that affects the chances of any LIV players qualifying for the four Majors, which fall outside the jurisdiction of the PGA, making them still eligible while being suspended by the main tour.
Soon, only past major winners such as Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith and Bryson DeChambeau and current PGA Champion Brooks Koepka will gain qualification to the majors, with LIV events not providing any points to help in the rankings.
The Chairman of the OWGR board Peter Dawson said in response to the decision: "We are not at war with them, the decision to make them ineligible is not political, it is entirely technical."
That makes it clear that the major stumbling blocks regarding LIV's accession to the OWGR is that they only play 54 holes instead of 72, and there is no cut, unlike on all every other professional tour.
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Dawson added: "LIV players are self-evidently good enough to be ranked, they are just not playing in a format where they can be ranked equitably with the other 24 tours."
In the small print of a letter sent to LIV chiefs Greg Norman and Gary Davidson, the OWGR make it clear that the small size of fields, as well as the absence of a cut and the number of holes played makes it impossible for the rankings to calculate points fairly in tandem with the other tours.
Hours after the announcement, LIV put out their own statement condemning the decision, and bringing into question the legitimacy of the current ranking system.
Through their social channels, the LIV Tour said: "OWGR's sole objective is to rank the best players across the globe. Today's communication makes clear that it can no longer deliver on that objective... Professional golf is now without a true or global scoring and ranking system."
The LIV tour is set to crown its second individual champion when their season comes to an end with a tournament in Saudi Arabia this week.
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However, while there is likely to be efforts to keep attention fixated on the golf, much of the media coverage will be on this decision by the OWGR.
LIV players have not been afraid to hit out at the PGA or the OWGR since making the jump though, including Louis Oosthuizen, who said "It is not a World Ranking system. You can say it is more PGA Tour ranking than anything."
The future of LIV is already up in the air though, after news broke in June that the Saudi Public Investment Fund formed a new agreement to work together with the PGA Tour.
Details in the agreement which was reached between the PIF and the PGA Tour shows that the future of LIV will be decided by the PGA Tour themselves.
A merger between the PIF and the PGA will leave questions about whether the PIF need LIV anymore, considering that they will now have a seat at the top table of professional golf.
Andrew Delaney
