Denied!! LIV Gets NO Ranking Points Says World Golf Ranking Board
Denied!!
The Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) Board has rejected LIV Golf’s request to be included in the ranking system for players.
Peter Dawson, chairman of the OWGR board and former Chief Executive of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club (The R&A) of St. Andrews, commented in a letter to Greg Norman and Gary Davidson as follows:
"“It is unfortunate that no way to include LIV Golf in the Ranking could be found which would be fair and equitable to the 24 currently eligible tours and their thousands of playing members.”"
The letter also stated that the OWGR was concerned about “implications of conducting individual and team competitions simultaneously.”
LIV Golf, from the beginning, has not created the kind of environment that the OWGR asks of tours that want to be included in the rankings.
The letter cited Sebastian Munoz’s decision at a LIV event.
As reported by the Associated Press:
"“Munoz needed to make birdie to force a playoff. However, his Torque team had a one-shot lead over the Smash team led by Koepka.”“If he were to hit the putt too hard and three-putt for bogey, Munoz might have cost Torque the team title. He left it just under 4 feet short, and made the par for Torque to win a team competition for the first time.”"
The OWGR invited LIV to resubmit if they make changes in their operations to remedy the concerns that OWGR has.
Dawson said golf politics were not involved in the board’s decision. He is a non-voting member of the OWGR group.
Previously PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley, and Keith Waters of the International Federation of PGA Tours took themselves out of the consideration of the matter regarding LIV because of the lawsuits that were pending against the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. They did not vote on the matter.
The rest of the committee is made up of representatives from Augusta National, the PGA of America, the United States Golf Association (USGA), and The R&A.
LIV Golf, from the beginning, has not created the kind of environment that the OWGR asks of tours that want to be included in the rankings.
LIV Golf has 48 players, not the 78 minimum that is preferred for ranked golf tours. However, that was apparently not the biggest obstacle to providing points for the LIV tournaments. The biggest issue, according to OWGR is that LIV tournaments are restricted to LIV golfers with no way in for other players.
Earlier this year, for the Golf Show 2.0, Dave Shedlowski of Golf Digest, enumerated the issues that stood between LIV Golf and ranking points.
He cited the fact that LIV doesn’t play 72 holes. They play 54.
To get OWGR points, a tour has to play 78 players. LIV plays 48.
The OWGR asks tours to have a 36-hole cut. LIV Golf has no cut.
The OWGR requires tours to have Monday qualifiers. LIV does not have any qualifiers. They have contract players.
There is no Q-School or anything like it for LIV, again, because they are contract players. The OWGR wants a Q-School.
Team events do not count toward the OWGR. Every LIV tournament is a team and individual event.
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Additionally, golfers may make different decisions in play if they are concerned about team score than they would if they were only concerned about individual score.
The OWGR indicated that LIV could re-apply for points in the future should LIV be able to make changes that allowed the tour to be in compliance with the OWGR standards.