Every of the 48 gamers who competed in final week’s LIV Golf occasion outdoors Chicago have signed a letter despatched to the chairperson of the Official World Golf Rating asking that OWGR retroactively embrace LIV Golf ends in its rankings.
The letter was despatched to OWGR chairperson Peter Dawson on Friday. The letter was additionally signed by nonplaying captain Bubba Watson and reserves.
“To take care of belief, we urge you — as one of many true statesmen of sports activities — to behave appropriately to incorporate, on a retroactive foundation, the outcomes of LIV Golf occasions in OWGR’s rating calculations,” the gamers wrote within the letter. “An OWGR with out LIV can be incomplete and inaccurate, the equal of leaving the Huge 10 or the SEC out of the U.S. school soccer rankings, or leaving Belgium, Argentina, and England out of the FIFA rankings.”
LIV gamers haven’t obtained factors for his or her finishes within the first 5 tournaments staged by the brand new circuit, which is being fronted by two-time Open winner Greg Norman and financed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund.
“Some 23 excursions are built-in into the OWGR universe, and LIV has earned its place amongst them,” the letter mentioned. “4 LIV golfers have held the number-one place on the OWGR, and one is presently number-two [Cameron Smith is now third, actually].
“LIV’s roster contains 21 of the final 51 winners of the 4 Majors. The extent of competitors on the common LIV occasion is at the very least equal to that on the common PGA Tour occasion. We all know as a result of we have performed in each. Each week that passes with out the inclusion of LIV athletes undermines the historic worth of OWGR.”
The letter famous that two-time main champion Dustin Johnson has fallen from thirteenth to twenty second (he’s now twenty third) since becoming a member of LIV Golf, regardless of ending eighth, third, second and first in his first 4 occasions.
Different LIV golfers even have slipped within the OWGR, together with Brooks Koepka (twenty ninth), Louis Oosthuizen (thirty third) and Talor Gooch (thirty sixth).
The OWGR standings are used to find out exemptions on the 4 main championships. The OWGR board started contemplating LIV Golf’s software throughout a gathering on the a hundred and fiftieth Open at St. Andrews in July. The board mentioned LIV Golf utilized for inclusion on July 6.
OWGR board members embrace PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley, USGA CEO Mike Whan, R&A chief government Martin Slumbers, PGA of America government director Seth Waugh, Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership government director Will Jones and Keith Waters, who represents the Worldwide Federation of PGA Excursions.
“The case for LIV’s inclusion is powerful, however we now have considerations that members of your Governing Board are conflicted and are preserving the OWGR from appearing because it ought to,” LIV Golf gamers wrote within the letter. “4 of the eight members have connections to the PGA Tour, which sadly views LIV Golf as an antagonist. Different members of the Board have made unfairly harsh remarks about LIV, with considered one of them calling the group ‘not credible.’
“The present overwrought surroundings makes your individual judgment essential. In your athletic, enterprise and golf administration profession you will have gained a stellar status for impartiality and integrity. Your work on the R&A and the OWGR reveals you understand how to mix custom and innovation.”
In an earlier letter to LIV gamers, Norman famous that there are 14 standards for reaching eligibility for OWGR recognition and that LIV Golf did not immediately meet all of them. One of many standards contains having a minimize after 36 holes; LIV Golf tournaments are 54 holes with no cuts.
However different tournaments — together with the BMW Championship, Tour Championship, Hero World Problem and World Golf Championships — haven’t got cuts and are nonetheless awarded OWGR factors.
“By any measure, it might be incorrect to disclaim factors to LIV gamers in gentle of the OWGR granting different tour gamers factors in comparable, if not much less aggressive, circumstances,” Norman wrote.
Different standards that LIV Golf did not immediately fulfill included tournaments having a median area of at the very least 75 gamers (LIV has 48 gamers on 12 four-man groups), a tour holding an annual open qualifying faculty earlier than the beginning of every season, a structured alternative for at the very least 5 gamers to progress to the complete member tour that’s proposing its software (in LIV’s case, the Asian Tour) and a tour demonstrating that it has complied with OWGR tips for a interval of 1 yr.
