The Official World Golf Ranking denied LIV Golf ranking points, according to reports by the Associated Press and Global Golf Post.
Format concerns and limited access into LIV Golf events were cited in a letter sent to LIV CEO Greg Norman from OWGR president Peter Dawson. The ranking’s governing board, which unanimously voted to deny LIV’s request for ranking points, said 54-hole, no-cut events for 48 players with a focus on team golf is an issue but is “capable of being dealt with mathematically in the [ranking] system.”
The bigger concern is the lack of access to LIV Golf. According to the letter sent to LIV as few as four players could join the new circuit next season including three from the league’s “promotions event” and one from the Asian Tour International Series Order of Merit. LIV also informed the OWGR board that 14 players will be contractually invited back for next season regardless of their performance.
Ranking points have been a goal of LIV Golf since its inception last year and Norman told players last year that “without LIV’s inclusion, the integrity and accuracy of the rankings themselves are severely compromised.”
In an interview with Global Golf Post, Dawson acknowledged the split in professional golf between LIV and the PGA Tour has created issues for the ranking.
“It diminishes the rankings if players like DJ [Dustin Johnson] and Bryson DeChambeau are not included. It would also diminish the ranking if the ranking rigor were reduced to include them,” Dawson said. “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 who conform to the OWGR norm and have more competition to them than perhaps the closed shop that is LIV?”
Letter from the OWGR to LIV Golf released today pic.twitter.com/QkSfChKhs2
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) October 10, 2023
Dawson also said that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley, who are members of the ranking’s governing board, did not participate in the decision to include LIV in the ranking. He acknowledged that a potential agreement between the Tour, European tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which owns 93 percent of the breakaway circuit according to court filings, could impact the ranking system.
“We are not here to say that OWGR criteria are the only way to play,” Dawson said. “We have to change and be flexible and do what’s best.”
In a statement released Tuesday evening, LIV Golf 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.
“Players have historically remained subject to a single world ranking to qualify for Major Championships, the biggest events, and for corporate sponsor contract value. A ranking which fails to fairly represent all participants, irrespective of where in the world they play golf, robs fans, players and all of golf’s stakeholders of the objective basis underpinning any accurate recognition of the world’s best player performances. It also robs some traditional tournaments of the best fields possible.
“Professional golf is now without a true or global scoring and ranking system. There is no benefit for fans or players from the lack of trust or clarity as long as the best player performances are not recognized.
“LIV will continue to strive to level set the market so fans, broadcasters, and sponsors have the assurance of an independent and objective ranking system and the pure enjoyment of watching the best golf in the world.”
LIV Golf is scheduled to play its penultimate event this week in Saudi Arabia and its team championship next week at Doral in Miami.
Editor’s note: Updated at 6:10 p.m. ET with LIV Golf statement.
