Official World Golf Ranking board denies LIV Golf’s bid for ranking points

SURREY – LIV Golf’s bid to have its players earn ranking points has been rejected by the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) due to concerns about the Saudi Arabia-backed circuit’s format.

OWGR chairman Peter Dawson said in a letter sent on Tuesday to LIV Golf’s chief executive officer Greg Norman and chief operating officer Gary Davidson that “at this time” their tour will not be recognised in the ranking system.

In response, LIV Golf, whose player roster includes Major champions Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Cameron Smith, said the decision means the OWGR can no longer deliver on its objective to rank the best players in the world.

“Professional golf is now without a true or global scoring and ranking system,” LIV Golf said in a statement.

“There is no benefit for fans or players from the lack of trust or clarity as long as the best player performances are not recognised.”

Dawson said the board committee felt LIV Golf’s tournament format – 54-hole, no-cut events for 48 players – was an issue but added that it was one that was capable of being managed through an “appropriate mathematical formula”.

The board did not make a determination what that adjustment might be and will not do so while there are other “unresolved deficiencies” which render performance comparisons with players competing in existing OWGR events extremely difficult.

The bigger concern, according to the letter, is the limited access for players to join LIV which, barring injury, features the same 48 players all season.

The letter also revealed that LIV informed the OWGR in July that 14 players will be invited back next season regardless of their performance, more than double the number that LIV officials originally told the OWGR.

Dawson also said the committee remains concerned about the implications of conducting individual and team competitions simultaneously, and singled out actions and comments attributed to Colombian golfer Sebastian Munoz during LIV’s tournament in Orlando in April.

Koepka led Munoz by a shot at the final hole and both were about 40 feet away for birdie. Koepka’s putt settled just over four feet from the cup before Munoz, needing a birdie to force a play-off but whose Torque team led Koepka’s Smash outfit by a stroke, lagged his putt to just inside four feet and made par.

“It’s weird, because I knew we were one stroke ahead on the team, so I couldn’t go extra. I knew I couldn’t be too aggressive,” Munoz said at the time. “He got the individual, we got the team. I call it a tie.”

Dawson told United States media outlets that OWGR’s decision was not aimed at punishing players who had joined LIV.

“This is entirely technical. OWGR has no hostility towards LIV whatsoever,” Dawson was quoted as saying.

“The important point is this is not about the players. LIV players are self-evidently good enough to be ranked; there is no doubt about that.

“This is about, should a tour whose formats are so different and whose qualification criteria are so different, can they be ranked equitably with other tours that conform to the OWGR norm and have more competition to them than perhaps the closed shop that is LIV?”

In July 2022 LIV applied for recognition in the rankings, which play a key role in deciding entry into golf’s four Majors. Its players have said excluding them “undermines the historical value” of the rankings.

Critics say LIV, bankrolled by Saudi’s Public Investment Fund, amounts to “sportswashing” by a nation trying to improve its image amid criticism of its human rights record.

Dawson said OWGR invites LIV to resubmit its application should it make any modifications that impact the areas of non-conformance.

While the four Majors have allowed qualified LIV Golf players to compete, those who earned exemption into the blue-riband events due to past results could one day be left out as they are not earning world ranking points

The PGA Tour stunned the sport in June after announcing an agreement with LIV’s Saudi paymasters aimed at ending the two-year civil war.

However, firm details of how the “new collectively owned, for-profit entity” that will see the PGA Tour, Europe’s DP World Tour and LIV Golf merge have yet to be divulged. REUTERS, AFP