Jeddah — Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell said players on the Saudi-funded LIV Golf tour needed world ranking points "ASAP" as he aimed a jab at the official ranking body on Wednesday.
McDowell, one of the stars lured by LIV's $25-million purses, said the body could not be called "official" if it shunned the invitation-only tour.
"All we want is to have a fair court, if you like, to recognise exactly what it is that we are doing out here," he said in Jeddah, ahead of the nascent tour's first event in Saudi Arabia.
"I feel like LIV tried to do everything they possibly can to be legitimate in the eyes of the OWGR (Official World Golf Ranking)."
"The word 'official' has to go away from OWGR if they don't take care of the players out here," McDowell added.
LIV Golf is not recognised by the rankings body, whose review of the case is expected to take more than a year. Without points LIV's players are falling down the rankings, jeopardising their qualification for the majors.
LIV applied for rankings points through a partnership with the MENA Tour but its tournaments, played over 54 holes with no cut, do not fit all the usual criteria.
"The longer this goes on, we have a huge amount of deterioration in the current world ranking points for the guys out here," McDowell said.
"And if that doesn't retrospectively ... get taken care of, by the time that we do get ranking points, our strength of field is going to be relatively much less than it needs to be.
"So we just get hurt the longer this game gets played, and it needs to be taken care of ASAP."
McDowell has plunged to 419th in the rankings and former world No 1 Dustin Johnson, a two-time major-winner, is currently 24th.
However, Johnson's fall was cushioned by an $18m pay-day last week for being crowned the top player of the inaugural season following five top-10 finishes in six events so far.
"I really regret my decision to come here. It's just so terrible," he said sarcastically. "I'm sitting there last night thinking about it, it was really bothering me a lot. I just can't get over it."
Forty-eight players have defected to the rebel circuit, causing a deep split as many fellow professionals and the US PGA Tour and the DP World Tour fight to retain the status quo.
LIV Golf is one of many recent sports investments by oil-rich Saudi Arabia which is often accused of "sportswashing" - using high-profile events to distract attention from its record on human rights.
Another $25m is on offer this week in Jeddah, with even the last-placed player earning $120 000.
AFP