LIV Golfer Says 'Politics' Has Caused 'Unfair' Situation Regarding Olympic Qualifiers

Mexico's Carlos Ortiz believes there are certain players who should be in the field for the men's Olympic golf event at Paris 2024 but are not due to an "unfair" situation which has been created by ongoing politics in the sport.

The 33-year-old - who did not reference anyone by name - qualified for this week's competition at Le Golf National as the 48th player on the Olympic Golf Ranking list alongside Abraham Ancer - a fellow LIV player and Mexican professional - who squeezed in as the 56th man out of 60.

There are seven LIV players in the Olympic golf tournament, but only two qualified in the top half of the OGR table - Jon Rahm (8th) and Adrian Meronk (29th). Both moved to the 54-hole league around three quarters of the way through the qualifying window.

Chile's Joaquin Niemann (34th) and Spain's David Puig (37th) were in the midfield pack when qualifying ended on June 17, while the remaining three LIV golfers - which includes Mito Pereira (53rd), who replaced original qualifier Cristobal Del Solar - languished in the bottom 25%.

A key factor behind LIV players struggling to rise up the OGR was due to the league being ineligible for world-ranking points by the Official World Golf Ranking organization.

The PIF-backed competition abandoned its attempts to secure OWGR points in March following several knock-backs, leaving its golfers to either accept a slide down the standings or force them to play on recognized circuits such as the Asian Tour during weeks without a LIV event.

One of the key figures on LIV, Cameron Smith, admitted he was "desperately hoping" to represent Australia at the Olympics but ultimately fell short in favor of Min Woo Lee and Jason Day.

Smith's predicament was similar to Bryson DeChambeau's, with the American acknowledging it was a "disappointing and frustrating situation" after he also failed to make the extremely strong four-man US squad.

Shortly before being asked about DeChambeau specifically, Ortiz and Ancer were posed a question regarding just how difficult it was for LIV golfers to qualify for Paris 2024.

Ortiz said: "It's just the situation in golf right now, it's unfair. Especially Olympic Games, you want to have the best golfers right here, but politics somehow manage things still.

"I still feel there's golfers that should be here and couldn't be here because of what has happened, you know.

"I think the Olympic Games definitely should be neutral. They should have not turned away ranking players accordingly, especially now that the World Ranking points don't really work anymore."

Progress over a potential unification deal involving the PGA Tour and LIV Golf's backers, the Saudi PIF, appears to have been slower of late, with hopes of a workaround RE world-ranking points seemingly not as close as many would have hoped.

Ortiz has urged those working on male pro golf's future to put their ego "on the side" and "find common ground" as soon as possible for the good of the game.

He continued: "The solution would be people up there to leave their egos on the side and find a common ground.

"I think there is definitely common ground, and I think both ways, they have to find -- give -- you cannot take everything. As I'm saying, both sides have to give something up to find common ground. I think it's a matter of time now but they are still taking time."

Meanwhile, Ancer and LIV rival Jon Rahm both suggested one way of working around the OWGR issue - for the Olympics, at least - would be to allow each National Olympic Committee to choose who represents them.

Rahm said: "I think you can always do it, like with other sports, and allow the countries to pick themselves. There needs to be some guidelines, but like Team USA Basketball has freedom to choose whoever they want.

"I think you need to let each country choose who they want to play, and in the future, I would also like to see some team aspect in the Olympics, as well."

Later on Tuesday, Ancer echoed Rahm's sentiments and said that his gold at the 2023 Pan American Games could have been a viable qualification route.

The Mexican said: "Yeah, I personally don't get too involved in politics to be honest or technicalities.

"But yeah, I think it would be great if the countries can get to pick who they bring and just be like, hey, these are the guys that we believe have a chance to win a medal, or this is the guys that I want to bring. Maybe that would be a way to fix it. It's not going to be easy. Not everybody is going to be happy.

"It's definitely tough. But yeah, for example... in other sports in the Pan American Games, you win a medal [then] it's sort of like qualification to go to the Olympic Games. I won the gold medal in Pan American Games but that didn't do absolutely anything. Nothing. Yeah, it's a little bit weird."