Now in its fourth year of existence and two years after somewhat boldly pronouncing its quest to receive Official World Golf Ranking accreditation, the LIV Golf League has resubmitted its application to be approved for points.
Trevor Immelman, the former Masters champion and current CBS analyst who is now the chairman of the OWGR board of directors, released a statement saying that an application dated June 30 was submitted.
“The OWGR Board is committed to a thorough evaluation process of all applications, and LIV’s application will be reviewed in accordance with OWGR’s criteria to ensure fairness, integrity and consistency,” Immelman said. “We appreciate the interest of LIV Golf—and all the tours—in contributing to the global landscape of men’s professional golf through OWGR. Further updates will be provided as the review progresses.”
The OWGR board is scheduled to meet at next week’s British Open at Royal Portrush although it would appear too soon to come to a decision. Whether or not one can be made in time for LIV Golf’s 2026 season will be the question going forward.
LIV Golf had barely started when it announced in July 2022 that it would be seeking OWGR accreditation. Because its players have not been receiving points while competing in LIV Golf events, some who are considered among the best in the world have seen their standing fall considerably.
In October 2023 the OWGR denied LIV’s bid, with then-chairman Peter Dawson pointing out the issues: a lack of proper relegation and promotion as well as a lack of field variance from tournament to tournament.
“We are not at war with them,” Dawson, a non-voting member of OWGR, said at the time. “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 trying to compete on them.”
The following spring, LIV Golf said it was withdrawing its OWGR bid—even though it had offered no changes to its system which has 13 individual 54-hole events with no cuts and scores also counting for a team format.
The OWGR board said that 54 holes and no cut are not the overriding concerns; it’s down more to the static field from week to week and the lack of ability for players to earn their way onto the league—and thus come off of it as well.
“We have said that some of the issues with LIV can be addressed,” said Mike Whan, the CEO of the United States Golf Association and a member of the OWGR board, at last month’s U.S. Open.
Whan also said at the U.S. Open that the leaders in the game were waiting to see where talks between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia—which backs LIV Golf—might go. With no agreement in sight, it is possible that movement to get LIV players into the major championships—both the U.S. Open and the British Open gave spots this year through LIV’s points list—could be under consideration.
“I also think, if I’m being perfectly honest with you, we’ve always felt like for the last maybe year and a half that we’re always three months away from kind of understanding what the new structure is going to look like,” Whan said. “So before we kind of react, what is LIV going to be, what’s the PGA Tour. So we always kind of felt like we’re just about to know that answer, so let’s figure that out.”
Whan along with the leaders of the other three major championships make up the board along with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and two DP World Tour executives, including CEO Guy Kinnings.
A meeting at the Open next week is standard and LIV’s timing might have been in hopes of getting its application some serious discussion.
LIV Golf representatives did not respond to a request for comment. It is unclear what, if any, changes the league has proposed in hopes of getting approved.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as LIV Golf Officially Resubmits Application for Official World Golf Ranking Points.
