LIV Golf Will Not Receive Official World Golf Ranking Points

After a lengthy application process, LIV golfers will continue to be denied Official World Golf Ranking points, primarily because of its 48-player, locked-field concept.

The LIV Golf League’s application for world ranking points has been denied by the Official World Golf Ranking.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Peter Dawson, the chairman of the OWGR board of directors, said the organization struggled with the 48-player locked field concept and trying to square that with the other tours around the world that are accredited.

"We are not at war with them," Dawson said in an interview with the AP. “This decision not to make them eligible is not political. It is entirely technical. LIV players are self-evidently good enough to be ranked. They’re just not playing in a format where they can be ranked equitably with the other 24 tours and thousands of players to compete on them."

Peter Dawson, chairman of the OWGR board of directors, said LIV Golf failed to meet OWGR criteria for inclusion / USA Today

In a letter to LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman and chief operating officer Gary Davidson (the letter was posted on the OWGR website and can be read here), which was sent at 9 a.m. ET Tuesday, Dawson wrote: “The Board Committee met recently to again review your OWGR submission in light of your latest responses to the Committee’s questions and concerns. At the meeting, the Board Committee unanimously determined that at this time the LIV Tour will not be recognised as an Eligible Golf Tour in the OWGR system.”

The OWGR board is comprised of representatives from each of the four major championships and well as PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley and Keith Waters of the International Federation of PGA Tours. Those three recused themselves from the LIV Golf decision to avoid a conflict of interest.

LIV Golf released a statement late Tuesday afternoon responding to the rejection, saying the decision "makes it clear that (the OWGR) can no longer deliver" on its objective to rank the best players.

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— LIV Golf (@livgolf_league) October 10, 2023

LIV Golf submitted its bid in July 2022 and was at times critical of the delay in being awarded points. Typically, the process can take a year, although the OWGR’s own guidelines stipulate that the board can act to accept or reject any bid regardless of timing.

LIV Golf is playing this week in Jeddah, where it will crown a season-long individual champion and seed its 12 teams for next week’s Team Championship in Miami. The 48-player fields with no cut and the same field each week has been an issue for the OWGR, along with the team aspect that can influence individual play.

Dawson told the AP that certain criteria such as 36-hole cuts and having less than a 75-player average field size were not deal-breakers.

It was more the set fields from week to week. For now, there is no weekly qualifying for LIV Golf events. The league will "relegate" the bottom four players—who are not under contract—following this season and will conduct a to-be-announced Promotions event in which three players will join the league next year. The leader of the International Series Order of Merit—currently former U.S. Amateur champion Andy Ogletree—will move into the LIV Golf League next year.

Players such as Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau have seen their world ranking plummet outside of the top 100 due to the LIV events not getting points. Cam Smith, who won last year’s British Open, and Brooks Koepka, who won the PGA Championship this year, remain ranked among the top 20 in the world—although they’d sure be higher if the received any modicum of points for playing in LIV events. LIV has just six players ranked among the OWGR top 100.

“Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, of course they should be in the ranking,” Dawson said. “We need to find a way to get that done. I hope that LIV can find a solution—not so much their format; that can be dealt with through a mathematical formula—but the qualification and relegation.”

Last February Sports Illustrated launched its own golf ranking system, the SI World Golf Rankings, which does award points to LIV golfers, along with golfers at all professional world tours. Johnson and Garcia are among 22 LIV golfers currently inside the SIWGR top 100.

LIV can reapply for OWGR points and it appears that in order to be accredited it will need to make changes to its system of access.

There is also the issue of the "framework agreement" between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Pubic Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which funds LIV Golf. A Dec. 31 deadline to come to a final agreement is in place, but it has been suggested it might be pushed back. How LIV Golf fits into the agreement is one of the issues.