LIV Golf was displeased, to say the least, with the news that the Official World Golf Ranking had rejected its application for points after more than a year of deliberation and didn’t hold back with its response.
On Tuesday afternoon the upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and financially backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund shared a lengthy statement condemning the ranking system by saying it had lost trust and clarity by not rewarding LIV player performances. The statement, however, failed to address the reasons given in the original AP report as to why the application for world ranking points was rejected.
The statement, in full:
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.
The Associated Press reported the reason for the rejection was the OWGR was unable to compare the 48-player, 54-hole, shotgun start, no-cut events with the other 24 tours under its world ranking wing. Also stated to be of concern were the qualifying and relegation methods employed by LIV Golf.
“We are not at war with them,” Peter Dawson, chairman of the OWGR board, said to 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 trying to compete on them.”
“Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, of course they should be in the ranking,” Dawson added. “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.”
