OWGR board denies LIV Golf's bid for ranking points

Field Level Media|published: Tue 10th October, 15:08 2023

Sep 24, 2023; Sugar Grove, Illinois, USA; Anirban Lahiri putts on the 16th green during the final round of the LIV Golf Chicago golf tournament at Rich Harvest Farms. credits: Jamie Sabau-USA TODAY Sports

The Official World Golf Ranking board turned down LIV Golf's formal request to allow players to compete for world ranking points.

LIV Golf submitted an application to OWGR in July 2022 after the Saudi-backed upstart league had played two of its 54-hole, no-cut, 48-player events.

Global Golf Post reviewed a copy of the letter in advance of the OWGR announcement on Tuesday.

"The Board Committee met recently to again review your OWGR submission in light of your latest responses to the Committee's questions and concerns," OWGR president Peter Dawson wrote to LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman. "At the meeting, the Board Committee unanimously determined that at this time the LIV Tour will not be recognized as an Eligible Golf Tour in the OWGR system."

Dawson told Global Golf Post via telephone on Tuesday that the decision was based on format concerns and limited access to LIV Golf events.

"This is entirely technical. OWGR has no hostility toward LIV whatsoever," Dawson said via telephone.

Ranking points have been a focus of LIV Golf since its inception in 2022.

"It diminishes the rankings if players like D.J. (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?"

Dawson noted that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley did not participate in the decision whether to include LIV in the ranking. The OWGR has an eight-member governing board that includes Dawson, who is a non-voting member of the committee.

The upstart league will contest its penultimate event — LIV Golf Jeddah — of the season this weekend before concluding its season in Miami next weekend.

—Field Level Media